“Covid Effect” continues to drive up Irish house prices

The sharp increase in Irish house prices over the past year could continue in the near future, analysts say. In a recent survey of estate agents, four out of five surveyed predicted that national property prices would rise in the next year. The same survey also found that prices in some regions could rise by as much as 7 percent.

However, the rise in prices is most significant outside of Dublin. While experts predicted a rise of 4 percent in Dublin, a sharper increase is projected in areas outside the capital city. In Leinster, the rise is expected to be 6 percent, and prices are expected to increase by as much as 7 percent in Munster, Connacht and Ulster.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and the Central Bank of Ireland Residential Property Price Survey was conducted in May, surveying over 200 estate agents. In this survey, the estate agents blamed the higher price forecast on homes outside of Dublin on the “covid effect”. The experts said that covid lockdowns and remote work situations have increased the attractiveness of …

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Just repossess stuff, there are REIT’s and Social Housing folks who want them

There is a message coming from two sectors who have a housing demand that isn’t discussed when it comes to the finger pointing game, but who, by rights should get a mention.

The most recent one is mentioned in Construction 2020. Under the heading ‘Social Housing’ on page 14 it talks about how social housing is important then says this ‘It is estimated that in the region of 5,000 new Social Housing units will be provided in 2014 through leasing and existing capital programmes. This includes completion of mortgage-to-rent arrangements’.

Translation: repossessed houses will help create social housing supply. It won’t add supply, it will just re-profile properties from one classification into another meaning the list length stays about the same for these properties. This merely lets people who borrowed leap frog the 90,000+ people in the queue ahead of them into getting a home (which used to be theirs) reclassified into social housing.

The ‘Mortgage to Rent‘ scheme came from the inter-departmental group …

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