Buoyancy in Galway house market

House sales in Galway are running narrowly ahead of the national average – and well ahead of the rest when the buoyant Dublin market is removed from the equation.

That’s according to the latest GeoView report published by GeoDirectory, which showed Galway with a housing turnover rate of 2.2% between July 2015 and June 2016.

The national average housing turnover rate for the same period was 2.1% – but when Dublin is excluded the turnover rate falls to 1.5%, highlighting the Capital’s effect on the housing market.

Galway had an average property price of €172,273 over the same period, with the national average price at €232,862 – a figure that falls to €168,078 when Dublin is excluded.

Dublin had the highest average transaction price (€380,237) in the country. Wicklow had the second highest average price (€315,564) and Kildare (€255,967) the third highest.

Three counties had average property prices of less than €100,000 in the year: Longford (€80,357) had the lowest average price in Ireland, followed by Roscommon (€88,317) and Leitrim (€91,608).

Galway had a vacancy rate of 15.5%, above the national average at 12.8% – but well behind most of the west with Leitrim recording the highest rate (29.5%), followed closely by Donegal (28.2%), Kerry (24.2%), Mayo (24.0%) and Roscommon (21.6%).

The counties with the lowest vacancy rates were Kildare (6.3%), Dublin (6.9%) and Meath (7.5%).

A total of 4,375 dwellings were classified nationally as being under construction in the GeoDirectory Database in June 2016.

Almost 25% (1,089) of all buildings under construction in Ireland were located in the Capital, while Cork and Galway accounted for 12.4% and 7.1% respectively.

Building activity was weakest in Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon as fewer than 60 buildings under construction were recorded between these three counties.