Poor information and murky bidding are depressing the number of homes sold in the Republic, a new report finds.
Last year, 61,000 properties changed hands in the State, about 2.8 per cent of all houses, which is below the 4.2 per cent average between 2013 and 2022, and the 3.6 per cent rate in the UK.
Property website MyHome, which is owned by The Irish Times, and Bank of Ireland blame the Republic’s opaque system for buying and selling homes for the low number of properties that come on the market.
The proportion of homes offered for sale here has lagged the UK “every year since the global financial crisis” – which began in 2008, says their latest report, Improving Ireland’s Homebuying Process, which was published on Monday.
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Most people understand the Republic does not have enough homes to meet demand, according to Conall Mac Coille, Bank of Ireland’s chief economist and writer of the report.
“Perhaps less appreciated is the process of buying and selling existing homes is also impeded by an opaque bidding process and the emerging discrepancy between asking prices and final sold prices,” he says.
Joanne Geary, managing director of MyHome, believes fully transparent bidding could improve how the market functions.
“At present close to half of residential transactions are visible on platforms that feature online bidding or auctions, including MyHome Offers,” she notes.
About one in seven of all homes sell for at least 20 per cent more than the asking price, MyHome and Bank of Ireland say.
This happens most with properties valued from €250,000 to €500,000.
Buyers believe, validly or not, they may be bidding against themselves when trying to secure a home, while they suspect the information they get from estate agents is inaccurate, incomplete or self-serving, the report contends.
The problems are deterring existing owners with mortgages from moving. Just 9,000 of this group took out loans to buy new homes last year. That amounted to 0.4 per cent of owners. In the UK, 0.9 per cent of people moved home in 2024.
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Only 16 per cent of buyers believe the housing market is transparent, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission found in a recent study examining information availability in residential property purchases.
The commission recommended that sellers should be legally required to confirm their title deeds are in order, taxes paid and other details before offering a home for sale.
It also argued for a conveyancing profession capable of navigating legal problems in sales and for standard information on property websites.
MyHome and Bank of Ireland recommend that estate agents continue to adopt transparent online bidding platforms, as revealing legitimate bids will aid buyers in judging what they can afford.
Close to half of residential sales are on sites with online bidding or auctions, including MyHome Offers, MySherryFitz and MyDNG, among others.
Their advantage is that they give buyers a transparent bidding history for the properties in which they are interested as well as allowing them to place their own offer, Ms Geary points out.
