Property market 2020: Pandemic fallout creates perfect storm

Latest CSO figures show numbers of Irish nationals returning to live and work at an all time high. This boom of returning emigrants and a migration to regional centres put additional pressure on an already limited availability of quality homes to buy. 

Housing stock levels were on the floor coming into 2020 – 25% fewer houses will be sold this year than last.

When Covid-19 struck initial predictions were that the demand for homes would decline dramatically but this turned out to be overly pessimistic. Prices fell initially by around 3% during Lockdown One, but by September house prices nationally had fallen by almost 1% in the year.

Having initially envisaged a 10% decline in prices early in the pandemic, Goodbody tempered this back to 5% in the last month. 

Read full article: IrishTimes.com