House buyers bought 8,400 new homes last year

House buyers bought 8,400 newly-built homes in the Republic last year, according to the latest figures.

Estate agents Sherry FitzGerald’s House Price Index showed that the cost of a home rose 2.1 per cent in the first three months of 2018, compared with 1.9 per cent during the same period last year.

Sherry FitzGerald said that the State's Property Price Register recorded a total of 8,400 new home sales in 2017, which was a 47 per cent increase on 2016. New house prices rose 9 per cent last year, the firm added.

Dublin accounted for 43 per cent of new home sales. Sherry FitzGerald noted that the price of a new home in the city fell by 3 per cent last year.

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Marian Finnegan, Sherry FitzGerald's chief economist, argued that this showed the Government's help to buy scheme, which aids first-time purchasers of new homes, was a success.

Fell steadily

The estate agent said that the number of homes for sale in the Republic fell steadily since the start of the decade.

About 21,200 houses were for sale in January, just 1.1 per cent of all private homes in the State.

This was almost two thirds fewer than in January 2010, when there were 54,100 dwellings on the market.

In Dublin, agents advertised 3,100 houses for sale in January this year, which accounted for 0.6 per cent of the homes in the capital.

Ms Finnegan pointed out that a supply squeeze and price inflation continued to hit the housing market.

“However, there is evidence of a significant increase in the volume of new home sales, which is to be welcomed,” she said.

The property register shows that more than 54,000 homes were sold during 2017.