Property prices in Galway City shoot up by 5%

Two separate surveys published within the past 24 hours show that the property market in Galway was the strongest performing outside Dublin in the second quarter of this year.

Both myhome.ie and daft.ie found that a lack of supply of new homes in the city had driven up prices significantly from April to June.

According to the daft.ie report, due to be published this morning, the average cost of a new home in Galway was €168,606 in the second quarter, a 5% increase on the corresponding period last year.

By way of contrast, property prices in the cities of Limerick (€124,203, down 8.5%) and Waterford (€106,699, down 3.7%) actually dropped over the same period. In Cork, the rise was less significant at 1.9%.

According to myhome.ie, Galway City recorded its first “positive” quarterly asking price growth since late 2007 over the past three months.

The cost of a four bedroom semi-detached home in the city rose by 5.7% to €185,000. The median asking price for a home in the city (€170,000) rose for the first time since the third quarter in 2007.

While there is a strong divergence between Dublin (up 7.4%) and the rest of the country, Galway is the only other urban centre in the country to come near the property price rise in the capital – fuelled by strong demand and the lack of supply of new homes.

The author of the myhome.ie report, Caroline Kelleher, said the divergence between Dublin, Galway and the rest of the country was continuing to widen.

“Supply constraints are clearly a key factor in Dublin and other key markets like Galway and these would appear to be driving the current price increases. Given the time lag in addressing supply issues it is likely prices will continue to rise in these areas for some time to come,” said Ms Kelleher.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel