Auctioneers give insight into Mayo property market during past year
Like many towns in Ireland, property prices in Ballyhaunis have significantly outstripped wage growth in recent years. Picture: John O'Grady
Ballyhaunis estate agent Kevin Kirrane is prepared to cut his fees in order to hold onto what he sees as a dwindling number of properties coming to a market characterised by high demand.
“The issue now is stock, we just can’t get enough properties and the competition among agents for these properties is fierce,” explained Mr Kirrane, adding that his firm APP Kirrane had a “very good year” in terms of transactions in 2024. “That’s why I’m willing to drop our fees, the way I look at it is if I’ve had two good years the best way to keep that going is to reduce fees and keep the business...”
Data collected by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown that Irish house prices will rise 10% in 2024 while the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has warned that home prices are overvalued by 10% when looked at in relation to wage growth. Kirrane agrees that wage growth hasn’t kept pace with increases in house prices locally and questions how €475,000 – a figure cited for a new affordable housing built on state land in Coolock in Dublin - is cited as the price of an affordable home.
House prices in Ballyhaunis are now at levels nearly twice those of a decade ago, according to Kirrane, who cites the recent sale of a second-hand semi-detached home in an estate in Ballyhaunis for €225,000, a property that he estimates would have sold for €130,000 ten years ago. CSO data shows home prices outside of Dublin are now 164.5%t higher than they were when they bottomed out in May 2013.
Another local auctioneer, Gerry Coffey, wants to see fast-tracking of planning decisions to relieve a shortage of supply. However, he sees challenges here too.
“A lot of towns don’t have the money to fix or extend their sewerage systems. Schools in towns like Ballyhaunis are at capacity. Is the school able to take 60 more kids?” Modular homes in rural and urban areas are a potential medium-term response to the supply crunch, said Coffey.
“If we can’t get the plasterers or bricklayers why don’t we build the homes in factories and then install them on appropriate sites?”
Meanwhile, the surge in house prices relative to wages is changing the kind of home being sold and depressing demand for derelict homes whose renovation has been subsidised by the Government as a solution to housing shortages.
With higher prices and bigger mortgages, buyers prefer well-finished houses like the €225,000 semi-detached home he sold recently in Ballyhaunis, said Kirrane.
“With bigger mortgages buyers are less able to borrow further money for renovation works on lesser-quality homes.”
On a related note, Kirrane says home buyers have “gone cold” on generous home regeneration grants offered by the Government to bring old or derelict houses back into use. This is partly because sellers are pricing the grants into the price tag.
“An old house that would have been marketed at €30,000 is now being offered for €70,000 or €80,000 because the sellers are pricing in the grant."
By lifting the prices of derelict homes, government grants have ironically reduced demand for them and Kirrane urges buyers to be clear-eyed about the extent of applicable grants and related expenditure. He points to advertisements offering homes “eligible for up to €103,000 in grants” – a reference to a range of government grant programmes which may or not be applicable to the home in question.
“Remember to get a €100,000 [grant] you may have to spend €300,000.”
Deep-pocketed outside investors, meanwhile, remain very interested in towns like Ballyhaunis, according to Kirrane, who believes the local authority will lease some of the large commercial properties currently being converted to residential in the town.
“Long-term leases offer an investor a yield that’s higher than those on offer from alternative investments,” he said.
Alongside rising house prices, rents have also surged in Ballyhaunis, said Kirrane, who has seen this cause problems related to affordability.
“Some people are asking for €1,300 for a house and we refuse to let these houses because they [higher rents] are difficult to collect when the renter falls into arrears. They [tenants] might pay for the first two months but in the third month I know I’ll be fighting for it and it’s a headache and I can’t make money from that.”
