An analysis of the Property Price Register carried out by leading property website, MyHome.ie has found that the level of property transactions across the country fell by 3.5% in 2016 to 47,175.
While the level of transactions may have fallen, the total value of property transactions actually increased by 7.4% to over €11.5bn.
Dublin’s dominance of the property market continues undimmed with the capital accounting for just over 15,000 transactions or a third of all property sales in 2016. While there was a decline of 2.4% on the number of sales in 2015, the value of transactions actually increased by almost 13% to over €6bn.
This means Dublin sales accounts for over half the value of Irish residential property sales. Cork with 5,322 house sales – a drop of 1.3% - accounted for 11% of the total number of transactions.
The most expensive house sold in Ireland last year was the Lyons Estate in Kildare which sold for over €12m.
At the other end of the scale, the cheapest property sold in Ireland according to the Property Price Register was at Newtown Clogher Claremorris, Co Mayo which sold for €5,260. Another property at Clonroche in Enniscorthy Co. Wexford sold for €5,500.
Sales were up in only six counties with Sligo recording a 12% increase and Waterford up almost 11%. Other positive movers were Laois (5.7%), Offaly (3.3%), Monaghan (4%) and Tipperary (1%).
The Managing Director of MyHome.ie, Angela Keegan said while the increase in these counties was positive, the general decline in the number of transactions was an ongoing concern.
"We have approximately two million properties in Ireland and in a normal market around 4% or 80,000 of these would be changing hands each year. As this analysis shows we are a long way short of that,” she said.
“At the moment there are 18,900 residential properties for sale on MyHome.ie, this is 12% down on this time last year when there were 21,410 properties for sale. Clearly it is going to take some time for the property market to return to equilibrium.”
Source: www.businessworld.ie