Cork house prices to grow by a further 6.4% this year

Housing prices in Cork will likely grow by a further 6.4% this year, Ann O’Mahony, regional director of the Cork branch of Sherry FitzGerald property advisory firm has said.

Speaking at the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Southern Construct Summit at the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs yesterday, Ms O’Mahony said that fewer properties in Cork were being traded than before.

She said: “Reflecting back on last year, in 2024 in Cork there was about 2.4% of standing stock traded. Nationally, there were under 50,000 transactions in the market last year.”

She explained that while Dublin saw a slight increase in the amount of transactions, Cork was down 3.5%, with just under 5,500 houses traded. Cork deviates slightly from the national average in that 75% of transactions in the Cork market last year were by people buying a house to live in themselves, compared to 82% nationally, Ms O’Mahony said.

“Additional residences in Cork were up slightly on the national average,” she said. “We’re coastal; we’ve Kinsale, East Cork, West Cork, so it’s no surprise we have slightly higher figures of additional residences.”

She also explained that a similar amount of homes were built nationally last year and in 1981, despite a population increase of 2m between then and now, saying: “In Cork, just over 3,500 properties were completed in 2024.”

The figures, which represent an increase of 14% compared to 2023, include 2,500 scheme houses, while the remainder were single units and apartments. There have been 720 completions so far in 2025.

She highlighted that the population of Cork and the rest of Ireland is “growing steadily month by month”, and household sizes are getting smaller, meaning more houses are needed. “These people who are coming into Cork, where are they going to live?” she said.

Ms O’Mahony said Sherry FitzGerald estimates Ireland needs to build around 56,200 homes a year every year, but 62,000 or more for the next few years in order to catch up.

“In the South West, Cork and Kerry, just over 4,000 homes were built last year, but our estimates show between 7,000 and 7,500 are needed year-on-year to cater to the growth in population and the demand for homes in the South-West,” she said.

“Right now in Cork, there’s less than 1% of standing stock of private dwellings advertised for sale. This is the lowest I’ve ever seen, and I’m doing this almost 30 years. In Cork in January there [were] only 1,400 homes advertised for sale in the private market — that’s down 43% from prior to covid.”

However, she said: “When you look at reasons for selling, nationally, 30% are selling investment properties, whereas in Cork only 25% are leaving for this reason, getting out of the rental market, which bodes well, and says that Cork is a place people want to come to.”

She said housing prices overall are “now very near the height of the market again” and the growth is not looking likely to slow down, with price increases of 6.4% in Cork this year.