Concern over housing shortfall in Cork as report shows city house prices up 9%  

HOUSE prices in Cork city have jumped more than 9%, according to the latest report from Daft.ie, with experts saying that tightness in availability has put upward pressure on housing prices, nationwide.

Prices in the second quarter of 2024 were 9.3% higher than a year previously, compared to a rise of less than 1% seen a year ago.

According to the Daft.ie House Price Report, the average price of a home in Cork city is now €364,000, 2% below its Celtic Tiger peak.

In the rest of Cork, prices in the second quarter of 2024 were 8% higher than a year previously, compared to a rise of 3% seen a year ago. The average price of a home is now €309,000, 12% below its Celtic Tiger peak.

The latest figures come just days after the release of 30 homes at a housing development in Cork saw crowds queue for hours to express interest in the properties, with reports that some had slept in their cars in the days ahead of the showhomes opening on Saturday.

The homes at Bayly, near Douglas, consist mainly of three-bedroom houses on sale from €445,000 and four-bed townhouses from €560,000.

More private homes needed 

Speaking to The Echo, Fianna Fáil councillor for Cork City South Central Seán Martin said more private homes need to be built in Cork city.

“The reality is that there is a shortfall in Cork city in the amount of private houses that are coming on stream; there is no question about that,” he said.

“We need to speed that up.

“We’re ok on social and affordable. We’re doing very well on that compared to a couple of years ago, but we need to look at how we can speed up the planning and when people have planning on sites, how they’re developed quicker than they are at the moment.”

Mr Martin acknowledged the demand for the Bayly development over the weekend and said that some of the keen interest in the development was possibly location-based.

“Location is important for people and that’s a reality too,” he said.

“The council needs to sit down and rethink how we can speed up development in private space.”

Labour Party councillor for Cork City South East Peter Horgan said he felt upset that people felt the need to sleep out for a house viewing.

“We need more houses,” he said.

“There is due to be a briefing of councillors over the next number of weeks of different housing projects, from Cork City Council, and we await that,” he added.

'War-like footing' on housing

Mr Horgan said the fact that there are thousands of vacant homes in Cork city and county, according to the Census, cannot be ignored.

“We need to adopt a war-like footing with housing and that will be my approach as a new councillor — to take any and all measures possible to bring those vacant houses back into use and also to encourage house-building and infrastructure-building with houses and not just building units and squeezing them in anywhere, but building communities so that people have the buses, the roads network, the corner shop, the childcare facility. That’s what we want to see,” he said.

Green Party councillor for Cork City South East, Hanore Kamegni, said: “I understand the housing crisis. I sympathised with all those who find themselves in the middle of this because of the high rent or living with their parents because they can’t buy a home.”

He said there needs to be a focus on bringing derelict properties back to life.

National picture 

Nationally, house prices rose by an average of 3.8% in the second quarter of 2024, according to the latest Daft.ie House Price Report.

The typical listed price nationwide in the second quarter of 2024 was €340,398, 6.7% higher than in the same period a year earlier and 35% higher than at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

The number of second-hand homes available to buy nationwide on June 1 stood at just over 11,350, the report said, down 18% year-on-year and less than half the 2015-2019 average of almost 25,000.

It noted that since the start of the year, there have consistently been fewer than 12,000 second-hand homes available to buy.

It said the only other time the market has been as tight, in a series extending back to 2007, is the period January-May 2022.

In Munster, there were just over 3,000 second-hand homes for sale on June 1, down 20% on the same date a year ago.

Trinity College Dublin economist Ronan Lyons said that tightness in availability has put upward pressure on housing prices.

“Over the past 20 years, a clear pattern has emerged in both sale and rental markets: When availability is tight, prices are pushed upwards.

“Availability in the sales market has been consistently tight since the start of the year and thus it is not surprising that prices nationally recorded their largest three-month increase since 2020,” he said.

“In part, tight availability of second-hand homes reflects the impact of significant interest-rate increases.

“As rates come down again, and in particular as sitting homeowners come off fixed-rate mortgages, supply should improve.

“This, however, is likely to take time and thus tight conditions may continue for some time,” he said.