Almost £25 million worth of new apartments and houses were sold in Dublin last weekend as buyers booked all the available homes in the first phases of three developments. The rush to reserve units was prompted mainly by fears of further price increases in the coming months.
Two Dublin agencies specialising in the new homes market, Hooke & MacDonald and Ross McParland, reported a record-level of weekend sales, both to first-time buyers and families trading up.
A breakdown of the sales figures shows that investors are returning to the apartment market in increasing numbers to capitalise on the sharply increased rents available since the slowdown in city centre schemes. Ross McParland sold 47 starter homes, worth £7 million, in Lucan and 42 apartments at the Hole in The Wall Road, off the Malahide Road, with an end value of £7.5 million. Prices in both cases were strong, starting at £139,950 for the three-bed semis and from £145,000 to £160,000 for the two-bedroom apartments, which are being developed by Manor Park Homes.
At Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W, Hooke & MacDonald logged over £10 million in sales when it took deposits on 20 expensive houses in Leinster Park within hours. A further 15 three-storey houses were then released at the launch prices and six of these were also sold. The four-bedroom terraced houses are on part of the grounds of Harold's Cross Greyhound Stadium.
Prices were among the highest for new homes in the city - £385,000 to £420,000 for 1,510 sq ft units and from £475,000 to £510,000 for larger homes with 1,700 sq ft. Ken MacDonald said he expected the shortage of new homes in the Dublin area to continue throughout this year because of the delay in servicing sites and the high level of planning refusals by the local authorities and An Bord Pleanala. Statistics on the number of planning approvals were misleading, he said, because in many cases developers were only allowed to build on a phased basis over a number of years due to inadequate services.
The slowdown in starter homes schemes already evident this year has led to significant price increases in prices over the past four months. Three-bed semis which were selling for £120,000/ £125,000 before Christmas have now crept up to over £150,000 in many areas.
Today, the Ross McParland agency is launching starter homes in Swords at prices from £156,995 - a figure that is likely to set a new benchmark in the area. Ross McParland said the bulk of the price increases forecast for this year had already taken place and further increases will be at a more moderate level.
