Brexit triggers spike in Irish property searches online from UK

Nothing like that Brexit manoeuvre to pull our gazes away from our navels and on to those of our neighbours. Forget “whither the property market here?” and other existential questions. Now we can ask, “whither Britain? And will it affect the property market here?” Of course, as we have learned all week, the implications of Brexit are clear as mud, and only gradually revealing themselves.

If online browsing behaviour is anything to go by, Sherry FitzGerald noted a 147 per cent increase in hits on its listings on UK website Rightmove.co.uk between the weekend pre-Brexit and the weekend following. That’s an increase from 8,556 hits for the weekend of June 16th to 19th, compared with 21,276 hits last weekend following the result.

Michael Grehan, managing director of Sherry FitzGerald, said: “This occurred in a week when exchange rate movements made our houses more expensive to British purchasers. Perhaps it is an indicator of a future shift in population.”

Perhaps. Nor can you discount people just speculatively searching to quantify exactly how much property prices had increased by elsewhere on foot of the market drop.

Angela Keegan, managing director of MyHome.ie, puts it down to people just checking the shift in prices compared with other EU countries. MyHome.ie reported pageviews from the UK last weekend had soared by 35 per cent on previous weekends to more than 20,000. Though the motives are not clear, there’s a sizeable UK audience keeping an eye to Irish property. Can we expect an influx of buyers to follow? At current exchange rates, not likely. But that may not be forever. In any case, with stock levels on the floor, the choices are limited.