House prices on the rise again in Mayo

Michael Duffy

HOUSE prices in Mayo rose by 14 percent in the last year with the average price for a house now at €139,000.
The latest house price report released by the property website, Daft.ie showed that house prices rose by an average of eight percent in Ireland during 2016. The rate of inflation in Dublin was 5.1 percent which was below the national average while the rate of inflation outside of Dublin was 10.1 percent.
The national average asking price in the final quarter of 2016 was €220,500, compared to €204,000 a year ago and €164,000 at its lowest point.
In Dublin, prices have risen by an average of €102,000 – or 46.2 percent - from their lowest point in mid-2012. Outside the capital, the average increase has been €48,000, or 36 percent, since the end of 2013.
In Mayo, prices in the final three months of 2016 were 14 percent higher than a year previously, compared to a rise of six percent seen a year ago. The average house price is now €139,000, 25 percent above its lowest point.

City rises
Prices continue to increase sharply in cities outside Dublin. Compared to the same period in 2015, prices in the final quarter of 2016 were 9.2 percent higher in Cork and 13 percent higher in Galway. In Limerick city, the increase was 14 percent, while in Waterford prices rose by just under 15 percent in 12 months. Inflation outside the cities varies from nine percent in Leinster to 12 percent in Connacht-Ulster.
There was a noticeable fall-off in the total number of properties for sale nationwide in the final three months of the year, having been largely stable for much of the year.
There were just under 21,800 properties for sale in December, compared to almost 25,500 the same month last year. This is the lowest national total since January 2007 and marks a fall of two thirds from a peak of 63,000 in late 2008.