Demand for homes in Offaly soars

DEMAND for homes in Offaly has increased by a massive 26 per cent year on year a survey by property website Daft.ie has found.

Nationwide demand for homes is up by 17pc year on year while the demand for new homes specifically is up a staggering 114pc nationally when comparing May 2023 to the same period in 2022.

Demand in Dublin is up 34%, double the growth in demand seen nationally. The demand for new homes in Dublin has also increased by a whopping 99pc.

Eighteen of the 26 counties examined across the country by Daft.ie have seen an increase in demand compared to the same time last year.

Similar to the growth seen in demand for homes in Dublin (up 34pc), demand in Meath is up 29pc. Limerick and Offaly both saw a demand increase of 26pc, while housing demand in Louth is 25pc higher than a year ago.

Homes with a listed price of between €400k - €600k saw the largest rise in demand of 38pc. New homes within the price bracket of €400k - €500k saw a staggering surge in demand of 1783pc, it can be assumed this price point has seen the largest increase due to the help-to-buy scheme qualifying criteria whereby the purchase value of the property must be €500k or less.

While demand for homes between €200k - €400k has increased 24pv (186pc for new homes), interestingly homes listed between €600k - €800k have also seen a large growth of 20pc (251pc for new homes) compared to this time last year. Homes over €800k have also seen an increase in demand from buyers but at a much smaller amount of 2pc, while new homes over €800k have seen a rise of 160pc year on year.

Increases in demand for homes was seen also in Leinster (up 26pc), Connacht-Ulster (up 15pc) and Munster (up 6pc. When we compare these demand increases with the demand for new homes specifically within these provinces we can see Connacht-Ulster saw the largest demand growth for new homes with 110pc, followed by Leinster at 75pc and Munster at 69pc hike in demand for New Homes.

Demand in three of the four cities outside Dublin also saw a heightened level of demand compared to last year - by 26pc in Limerick, 13pc in Cork and 9pc in Galway. Similar is said for the demand for New Homes in these three cities with Galway showing the highest demand for new homes nationwide at 160pc. Limerick and Cork saw similar increases in demand for New Homes with Cork experiencing an 88pc increasepc% compared to the same period last year.

Overall, demand for homes nationwide has strengthened year on year. The other side of the equation, however, not covered here is supply, and the supply in the sales market in Ireland over the course of the last 12 months was not one where supply was adequate to meet demand.

“The Irish housing market is in desperate need of increased supply over years and indeed decades to come,” said a statement from Daft.ie