Mayo house prices unlikely to fall

Oisín McGovern

A local auctioneer has said house prices are likely to stabilise in the coming months, but he has ruled out any fall in prices in the short term.
Robert McGreal of REA McGreal Burke, which has offices in Castlebar and Galway, was commenting on reports that the price of an average second-hand three-bedroom semi-detached house in Mayo rose by 3 percent in the last year.
The Real Estate Alliance (REA) Average House Price Index revealed that the average cost of a three-bedroom house in the county is now €190,000. This compares the nationwide average of €293,343 and an annual increase of 5.3 percent.
The REA survey collated data on the actual sale price of three-bedroom semi-detached houses during the first quarter of 2022. The average time taken to complete a sale in Mayo is now seven weeks, down three from the last quarter.
Across the Mayo, first-time buyers made up 80 percent of the market during the first quarter, with 30 percent of buyers moving out of the cities.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday), Mr McGreal said that demand for housing had started to fall. “There’s signs that while house prices are still maintaining their level, the number of people attending viewings has dropped – slightly – but they have dropped. The number of phone calls are down slightly as well,” he said.
“I would think that possibly towards the back end of summer you will probably see the property market stabilising. I don’t see prices going down because there’s no new homes being built in Mayo of any large amount.”

West Mayo woes
Yesterday (Monday), 928 houses were listed for sale in Mayo sale on Daft.ie. Mr McGreal said the impending lifting of the no-fault eviction ban would ‘definitely’ result in a greater number of houses coming on the market for sale.
Westport continues to remain the most expensive district in Mayo, with three-bedroom semi-detached houses fetching an average of €260,000. This represents an 8.3 percent increase on the previous quarter. Time to sell fell by two weeks to seven.
“This quarter, there has been significant interest in moving west to a popular and modern town. Westport attracts regular holiday-home purchasers as well as buyers who can now work from home and take the train to Dublin as required,” Mr McGreal commented.
In addition to competing with bidders for second-hand holiday homes, Mr McGreal said local people in West Mayo were finding it hard to get planning permission.
“As a teenager I remember stories about people buying houses from Dublin. But that time local people could get planning permission to build a house. The planning process, if you are a local, is difficult at the moment. So that’s why it’s becoming more of an issue,” he said.
“The Dublin property market, as it increases, has an elastic impact on the purchase price of properties in desirable locations, such as Westport, Killarney. There are towns in Ireland, and Westport is one, that suffer from this. It’s just a fact of life.”