Housing prices were stable in the third quarter as supply improved, especially in Dublin and the rest of Leinster, according to a report by property website Daft, with the average price listed on the site standing at €311,514.
This was up just 0.1 per cent on the average for the second quarter of 2022.
The annual rate of housing inflation remains high at 7.7 per cent, but has eased on the 9.2 per cent year-on-year rate recorded three months ago.
The number of homes available to buy as of September 1st arrived at almost 15,500, up 22 per cent on the same date last year. This was the highest total seen nationally in almost two years.
The listed price average in the third quarter of 2022 remains 16 per cent below the Celtic Tiger peak, Daft said.
“Improved stock on the market over the course of 2022 has helped reduce inflationary pressures in the sales market,” Trinity College Dublin economist Ronan Lyons, the author of the report, said.
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“This is most notably the case in Dublin, where the total number of listings coming on to the market in the year to August was effectively in line with the pre-Covid number. This has helped improve the stock on the market at any one point in time, the key predictor of future price changes.”
In Dublin, the number of homes available to buy is up 30 per cent year on year, while in the rest of Leinster, availability is up 40 per cent. Stock on the market has also risen in Munster, however, where it is up 8 per cent, and in Connacht-Ulster, where it is up 15 per cent.
Although the number of listings and availability outside Dublin has also improved, in some markets they remain well below the 10-year average, Mr Lyons said.
“While weaker demand – due to inflation in other living expenses and increases in interest rates – may help stabilise prices, the true solution to the high level of housing prices remains significantly increased supply, over years and indeed decades to come.”
Compared with three months ago, prices were stable in Dublin, but they edged up in other cities. Cork city prices rose 0.2 per cent and Limerick prices 0.3 per cent, while Galway prices climbed 0.5 per cent and Waterford prices 0.6 per cent.
Outside the cities, prices rose 1.1 per cent in Leinster, while they were down 0.7 per cent in Munster and 0.5 per cent in Connacht-Ulster.
Despite the quarterly falls in many locations, year-on-year inflation remains in positive territory in each city and county, ranging from 5.4 per cent in Meath to 16.8 per cent in Donegal.
