The average mortgage loan for a house purchase here exceeded €300,000 for the first time last year, according to the latest quarterly report by property website MyHome.ie on property market trends.
The average residential mortgage loan was €308,200 in the third quarter, up 7 per cent on the year. In October the average mortgage approval rose to a fresh high of €321,000, up 8 per cent on the year, the report noted.
In the fourth quarter the median asking price for properties listed on MyHome, which is owned by The Irish Times group, was €365,000, up 8.4 per cent year-on-year. In Dublin the figure was €450,000, up 5.9 per cent year-on-year. This was the softest rate of inflation in the capital for 12 months.
Of the commuter belt counties around Dublin the “standout rise in prices” was in Kildare. The median asking price in the county was €310,000, up 10.7 per cent on the year. In Meath the median price was up just 1.7 per cent on the year to €300,000, and was flat in Wicklow at €395,000
For the rest of Ireland price inflation amounted to 9.8 per cent, the highest level for 2½ years.
In terms of the final price paid for properties, deals were being settled at 7.4 per cent above the original asking price – a fresh high. In Dublin the median transaction was 8.6 per cent above the asking price.
The average first-time buyer purchase price was €375,000 in the first half of last year, up €21,000 or 6 per cent on the year. Some €7,300 of this additional amount was accounted for by larger deposits, according to Conall MacCoille, the Bank of Ireland chief economist who authored the report.
Mr MacCoille also noted that first-time buyers here are getting older. On average they were aged 36 years in the first half of 2024, up from 34 in 2020, and putting them two years older than the UK average. And they spend on average around 28 per cent of their post-tax disposable incomes servicing their home loans, although Mr MacCoille expects this to fall back to 25 per cent or lower as a result of rate cuts by the European Central Bank.
There were just 11,500 listings on MyHome in December, and such is the competition to secure homes that the average sale time hit a new low of three months.
He also noted that the loosening of the Central Bank of Ireland’s mortgage lending rules had played a role in pushing up house prices. In the first half of last year the average first-time buyer loan to income ratio was 3.37 times, up from 3.25 in 2023.
In terms of the outlook for this year, Mr MacCoille is forecasting an average price rise of 4 per cent. He expects completions to rise to 42,000 from 33,000 last year, and to increase to 46,000 for 2026.
MacCoille said the message from this report is that pricing has retained its momentum, and has still not softened even as affordability has become stretched through 2024. “Demand is still fierce in the market and indeed has strengthened as the year has gone on. This demand has been impacted by rising mortgage approval values, and the first-time buyer market is particularly hot.”
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