The overall number of second-hand houses for sale has decreased by 26% since before the pandemic, according to new figures from real estate group Sherry Fitzgerald.
According to the estimates, there were 15,300 houses for sale in July 2022, accounting for 0.8% of the country’s total housing stock. This is a decrease of 7,900 properties from July 2019.
This amount is higher than the previous year’s total of 13,500 second-hand properties for sale.
According to the company, the shortage of available houses for sale was reflected by a supply issue in the rental industry.
Commenting on the new figures, Marian Finnegan, Managing Director at Sherry FitzGerald said: “In the period preceding the Covid-19 crisis, Ireland’s housing market faced substantial challenges, most notably, the imbalance between supply and demand.
“The pandemic and subsequent geo-political discord have served to exacerbate this supply problem and while there have been modest improvements in supply year-on-year, the overall stock of houses available for sale remains near to record low levels.”
Despite a nationwide supply shortage, rural Ireland’s property stock has increased by 51% in the last three years.
Property prices are also rising. Prices have increased by 5.5% in the first nine months of the year, a slight slowdown from the same time previous year, when they increased by 7.1%.
With 26,240 sales in the first half of the year, house sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Ms Finnegan criticised the Government’s approach to the accommodation crisis in Budget 2023, including the introduction of the concrete block levy.
“Most significantly perhaps the Government failed to introduce crucial measures to tackle the deeply embedded issues within the rental market.
“The introduction of €500 tax credits for renters, representing as it does less than 3% of average annual rent in Ireland, will have a limited impact on affordability.
“More importantly, it fails to address the crux of the problem in the rental market, a lack of supply,” she added.