Rising cost of living hits Irish would-be homebuyers

Over half of prospective Irish home buyers say that the current soaring cost of living is negatively affecting their ability to purchase a property, according to a new MyHome.ie survey.

The survey of 2,020 people by MyHome.ie – which is owned by The Irish Times – also found soaring house prices had forced 70 per cent of respondents to look beyond their top location choice.

Some 56 per cent of respondents have finances in place to buy a property in the next year, though 42 per cent say they are not confident about their ability to buy in that timeframe, according to the property portal.

"The rise in the cost of living has been significant and is a source of worry for all people, so it is not surprising to see homebuyer sentiment negatively affected in this survey," said Joanne Geary, managing director of MyHome.ie.

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Building materials inflation

Ms Geary noted that the company’s recently-published quarterly property price report forecast building materials inflation of 18 per cent next year, which would likely put a break on soaring market demand. “This could be viewed as a positive result for the market, as we need to see demand easing in order to redress the imbalance between that demand and our chronic lack of supply,” she said.

Residential property prices increased by 14.8 per cent on the year nationally in January, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Meanwhile, overall Irish inflation was running of 6.7 per cent in March, the highest in decades, according to the CSO. The cost of electricity, gas and other fuels had risen by almost 47 per cent in the year to March, with the effects of the reopening of the global economy from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic on prices exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.