Number of second-hand homes listed for sale falls to new record low

The number of second-hand properties listed for sale in the Republic has fallen to a new low, according to Sherry FitzGerald.

In its latest analysis of the sales market here, the company said there were just 15,140 second-hand homes available to buy in January this year, down 26 per cent on January 2020, just before the pandemic.

The total volume of properties advertised for sale last month represented just 0.8 per cent of the total private housing stock, it said, which is extremely low by international standards. The company also noted that there were 53,909 properties advertised for sale in January 2010.

“The imbalance between supply and demand remains the foremost obstacle facing the housing market,” Sherry FitzGerald managing director Marian Finnegan said.

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“This is crystallised by the fact that in January there was only 0.8 per cent of stock available for sale nationwide and only 0.75 per cent in the Dublin market. Such limited supply will inevitably put further upward pressure on prices in the months ahead,” she said.

The company’s latest data suggest stock is particularly tight at lower price categories.

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The sub-€200,000 price category has seen the greatest contraction in supply with just 3,850 such properties available for sale across Ireland, a fall of 49 per cent in just three years, it said.

The analysis also highlighted that all four provinces have seen significant depletions in the volume of stock available for sale since the start of 2020, with supply decreasing 37 per cent in Connacht, 36 per cent in Ulster and Munster and 12 per cent in Leinster.

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The company said rural Ireland had been most impacted by falling supply, with Roscommon and Kerry seeing the largest decreases compared with their pre-Covid levels, 50 per cent and 45 per cent respectively, and Tipperary and Carlow both recording decreases of 42 per cent.

Looking at the city markets, supply levels were more varied, Sherry FitzGerald said. Cork city, with 382 units advertised for sale, recorded a 10 per cent increase on January 2020. The second-hand stock available for sale in Galway city remained unchanged at 0.7 per cent, or 231 units. Limerick city saw a reduction in supply of 4 per cent, bringing the available stock to 139 units.

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The report also indicated that Dublin was the only county nationally that had seen an increase in stock available compared with January 2020, an improvement of 7 per cent overall, bringing the stock available for sale to 3,945 units.

The increase in stock varies across the four local authorities with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown recording an increase of 12 per cent compared with its pre-pandemic level, with Dublin City, South Dublin, and Fingal recording increases of 7 per cent, 6 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

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“Historically low stock levels are simply another indicator of the dysfunctional nature of the market. What began as a challenge in key urban centres over a decade ago has by now become a nationwide affliction. In January 2010 there were just under 54,000 units advertised for sale nationwide,” Ms Finnegan said.

“The collapse is supply in the intervening period, of just under 39,000 units, has underpinned the upward pressure on prices and caused significant societal challenges. Such a shortage of stock will only be resolved by a notable increase in construction activity. At this juncture we need to be targeting more than 52,000 new homes each year, double our current output levels,” she said.