Cash buyers still a force to be reckoned with in residential market

The cash buyer hasn’t gone away just yet with new figures from property website myhome.ie showing that 48 per cent of houses purchased in Ireland last year were bought with cash.

In total 20,365 of the 42,484 transactions recorded in Ireland in 2014 were by cash buyers with industry experts insisting they still have a prominent role to play in the market.

Pat Davitt of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) said it was still the preference of receivers to deal with cash buyers due to the straightforward nature of the transaction.

“This is the third year really since the market picked up but we still find that there is a lot of cash out there.

“Quite often they will get a property in preference to those with loan approval because there’s less hassle involved.

“Apart from in Dublin, prices are still quite low with small amounts being paid for property down the country. Until prices rise more I think we’ll continue to see cash buyers being a big factor in the market.

“We’re seeing a lot of activity from cash buyers from the North and England due to the strength of sterling,” he added.

Pat Mullery of DNG Terenure cited the example of two-bed apartments selling in Waterford for €27,000 as the kind of value that is available for the cash buyer.

“There’s certainly a lot of cash buyers out there but I think this will drift downwards. I’m not sure it can stay at roughly 50-50 in the long term,” he said.