Ordinary buyers are being locked out of the new housing market as nearly half of all new-build homes last year were sold to the likes of funds and housing bodies.
A new report released says four out of every 10 new homes sold in Ireland last year were bought by approved housing bodies, financial institutions, local authorities or charities.The new housing market for private buyers was toughest in or near the capital, as only 2,116 new homes in Dublin were sold to individual buyers last year.
This represents less than 40pc of all new housing sold in Dublin in 2023. The report, published by DNG, used data from the Property Price Register (PPR) to analyse sales of new homes in Ireland last year. DNG has claimed that the PPR last year under-reported the number of new homes sold by 30pc.
It said there were instances where the register had recorded a block sale of a number of new housing units as one transaction, which meant 5,163 new units sold as part of block sales last year were not reflected in the national register.
The DNG report assumes that a block sale, which means the sale of three new housing units or more, shows properties were bought by the “non-household sector”.
While this sector includes local authorities and housing bodies, it also includes investment funds. So while the PPR originally reported that there were 11,876 new housing units sold in Ireland last year, the DNG report now claims that the correct figure is 17,039.
Across the country last year, over 40pc of new homes were sold as part of block sales. This means that only 58pc of new units – which represents over 9,200 homes – were sold to individual private buyers.
In Dublin, ordinary house-hunters were squeezed out of the bidding for the majority of new homes as over 60pc of new homes sold last year were part of block sales. The lion’s share of 3,528 out of the entire market of 5,752 new homes in Dublin were bought in block sales.
In Cork, almost a quarter of the 1,844 new homes available last year were sold in block sales.
However, the number of new homes sold to private individuals increased by 31pc when compared with 2022. The report said new housing stock in Galway remains low. Only 553 new homes were sold in the entire county last year, with 148 of them being sold as part of block sales.
In Limerick, the supply of new homes was also low. Of the stock of 429 new homes sold, only 176 went to private buyers.The DNG report said that 239 of 429 new units on the Limerick market last year were sold in block sales and the remainder were “one- or two-house sales outside of blocks or scheme sales”.
Outside of Dublin, Kildare had the highest number of new homes for sale in the country at 2,164, with just over 1,600 of them being sold to private buyers.
