Property prices across Roscommon, Mayo and Galway rocketed by some 20 per cent in the year to February 2017, as the west looks to catch up with the national recovery in house prices.
According to the latest update on property prices published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday, the pace of price growth in the region outpaces that of anywhere else in Ireland, advancing by almost 20 per cent in the 12 months to February 2017. Growth was also strong in the southeast, including, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford, with prices up by about 19 per cent. Nationally, house prices rose by about 11 per cent in the period. In Fingal in north Dublin, prices rose at the slowest rate, advancing by 4 per cent in the year, with growth of less than 8 per cent in the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown region of the city.
It means that prices outside the capital are now rising much faster than those within, reversing the trend noted a few years ago when growth outside of Dublin remained sluggish at best, with national house prices (excluding Dublin) growing by about 13 per cent in the year.
Go west
The strongest growth rates are evidenced in the west, which, for some years, has lagged behind the national recovery in house prices. Latest figures now suggest that the region is finally catching up with the recovery, as prices start to move off very low bases, while growth rates start to taper in the major urban areas.
In Mayo for example, prices have roared ahead by some 43 per cent, figures from the CSO show, with the average house selling for just €90,683 last February, but €129,585 in February 2017.
In Claremorris, Co Mayo, Fintan Gilligan of DNG Gilligan says demand, and a greater availability of mortgage funding, is behind the price increases.
“There’s a good pool of purchasers who can get between €100,000 and €150,000,” he said, adding that first-time buyers looking to get on the ladder have pushed up prices “substantially”.
“Once you go above that it slows down a good bit,” he adds.
Last year a first-time buyer could buy a typical three bedroom semi-detached house in the area for about €90,000-€95,000; now the average price is closer to €130,000-€135,000, he says.
At Ard Lugalisheen in Ballindine, Co Mayo for example, a three-bed semi-detached house is now selling for €105,000, up from €95,000 before Christmas, with about seven of the 14 units available sold.
In Roscommon, prices are up by 43 per cent in the year, but it comes off a very low base. Last February, the average property was selling for just €62,000, but is now making about €88,800.
Price growth is also beating national averages in Galway, where the average house is now selling for €175,147, up by 14 per cent from €153,105 in February 2016.
Transaction levels remain muted however – in the same period in 2015/2016, there were some 3,200 sales in Galway, compared with 2,965 in 2016/2017.
