Every few months,  the team here at Kinsella Estates bring you the round up of property statistics and trends from the previous quarter but this week we have even bigger news.  The Central Statistics Office , or CSO, have released a special housing report, based on the latest census figures.  This is a big deal as it offers an insight into the market and key measurements  that we only get once every five years and for those who have been watching the market over the last five years, you will know that there have been lots of changes – good and bad.  This is the first such report since the market started to recover in 2012 and it definitely going to cause a bit of trouble as it contradicts new housing supply numbers released earlier this year by the Department of Housing.

The report covers total housing stock levels, new builds completed and the changing patterns of renting, for example, the trend towards older people renting rather than owning their own home. One Irish Times journalist described it as “a picture of everything we wanted to know about the Irish housing crisis but were too afraid to ask”.

Looking at the 12 months up to March  this year, we can see that the overall residential market is  up almost 11%.  Broken down, this translates into increases in the capital of just over 8% while areas – particularly in the west of the country, which was well behind the recovery we have seen here in the south east – have seen house price growth of up to 20% in the last year.  In general, the property market in Ireland  is still about 30% below peak levels last seen in 2007.

In terms of volume, the total number of  homes purchased over the last year (February 2016 to February 2017)  is 37,294.  What is interesting to note is the breakdown by buyer type; only a quarter of all buyers were first-time buyers and less than a quarter were investors or non owner-occupiers.  This means that homebuyers trading up and down, and those buying holiday homes, represent the driving force within the market.  People might be surprised to learn that the average home price in Dublin is now €398,319 and it is difficult to believe that that could have been achieved without the relaxing of the Central Bank lending rules last year and the introduction  of the controversial Help-to-Buy scheme. The average price paid for a  home nationwide is currently €245,165.  In County Wicklow, house prices are the highest outside of Dublin, with an average sale price achieved of €313,023.  Take a look at the image above (figure 3.1) for an indication of where real progress has been felt and where the recovery has effectively bypassed.

Outlook

While it is not good news for house-hunters, property prices are set to increase by double digits again this year.  In fact, Davy Stockbrokers said that 10% is a conservative estimate of future growth this year and the real figure might be much higher.  This will come as a great relief to sellers and homeowners currently caught in the negative equity trap but it raises the ugly question: Is double digit growth sustainable without significant development and can buyers truly depend on new supply coming into the market?  Unfortunately, there is no single answer to this but as the new homes specialists in counties Wicklow and Wexford, Kinsella Estates are in a good position to help would-be buyers identify new developments coming up locally over the next 18-24 months.

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact Michael, Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie .  Alternatively, you can email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie or telephone : +353 53 94 21718 to arrange a viewing on our qualifying new builds.

Original article by Jim O’Brien, on Independent.ie

The last few weeks of 2016 saw somewhat of a flurry of sales in the auction rooms with good prices achieved, writes Jim O’Brien.

In the southeast, Alan Kinsella of Kinsella Estates Gorey and Carnew sold a 48ac non-residential farm at Ballybuckley, Bree near Enniscorthy in Co Wexford for €662,000 or €13,600/ac.

Located 800m from the village of Bree, the land is about 5km from Enniscorthy and across the road from the well-known Wilton House.

Currently in stubble, the holding is made up of two distinct lots consisting of a 16.15ac parcel with about 300m of road frontage and a 32.33ac parcel with laneway access.

The stubble ground is described by Mr Kinsella as good quality, south-facing land with access from two roads.

At auction, two rounds of bidding saw the amount on offer for the two lots reach a total of €465,000.

The 16.15ac piece opened at €160,000 and with two bidders in the chase, it was making €220,000. The 32.3ac parcel opened at €200,000 and with two bidders in action, it held at €245,000.

Bidding then concentrated on the entire in a sale driven by the two customers who had bid on lot two in the first round. When the amount on offer reached €580,000, Mr Kinsella consulted with the vendor and the property was put on the market at that price.

However, this was far from the end of the story and a further series of bids from three active customers saw the price break the €600,000 mark.

But still the hands kept rising until the hammer fell at €662,000 and a local farmer bought the place for €13,600/ac.

Enniscorthy auction

Staying in Wexford, Frank McGuinness and Michael O’Leary of Sherry FitzGerald O’Leary Kinsella sold a 92ac farm at Fairfield, The Still, Enniscorthy for €1.24m or €13,500/ac.

The holding, which includes a derelict house, has been idle for more than 10 years and will take some works to clear overgrowth and vegetation and bring it back to full farming production.

Auctioneer Frank McGuinness said that although the land is overgrown, it is fundamentally very good productive ground. The place has plenty of road frontage divided as it is by the Enniscorthy to Caim road.

Prior to auction, the property was guided at between €750,000 to €900,000 but on the day it exceeded all expectations.

Frank McGuinness was in charge of the gavel and opened proceedings with a 19ac lot across the road from the main farm. This opened at €150,000 and, with two customers in contention, was bid to €280,000.

The main lot – consisting of 73ac with the derelict house – attracted three interested parties and was bid to a hefty €820,000.

This gave a combined €1.1m for the entire, well ahead of the guide.

Mr McGuinness put the entire to the floor at €1.1m and with two bidders in action it quickly rose to €1.2m.

At this point, a new bidder entered the fray.

With four customers in action, the price rose quickly to €1.24m at which point the hammer fell and the place was bought by a solicitor based in Enniscorthy – believed to be acting for two clients.

Mr McGuinness said that while he was surprised at the price paid, the extension of the M11 to by-pass Enniscorthy and improvements to the New Ross road resulted in a lot of CPO land purchase in the area, hence farmers in the area have spending power.

Alan Kinsella agreed.

“The farmers who sold land for these developments have to spend it on land to avoid paying tax on it so there is more money for land in this vicinity at the moment,” he said.

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact Michael, Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie .  Alternatively, you can email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie or telephone : +353 53 94 21718 to arrange a viewing on our qualifying new builds.

Budget 2017 announced the Help-to-Buy scheme, which has proven controversial within the industry, to help intending first-time buyers to put together the deposit required to purchase or self-build their new house or apartment.

The scheme works by way of an income tax and DIRT tax refund, in respect of payments made over the previous four tax years. There are three types of applicants who can apply for the Help-to-Buy scheme, namely:  retrospective applicants or buyers whose contracts are signed between 19 July 2016 and 31 December 2016; first-time buyers whose contracts are signed between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019; and first-time self-build applicants building between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2019.

Eligibility:

1. The buyer must be a first-time buyer, specifically, the buyer must not have either individually or jointly with any other person (directly or indirectly), previously purchased, or built a property.  Where more than one individual is involved in purchasing or building a new home, all of the individuals must be first-time buyers.
2. The house or apartment must be a new-build (may be self-built)
3. The purchase must be dated between 19 July 2016 and 31 December 2019
4. The property must have been purchased or built as the first-time buyer’s home and not acquired for investment purposes.
5. The property must be occupied by the first-time buyer, or at least one of the first-time buyers in the case of multiple first-time buyers (a group), for a period of five years.

How to apply:

• Registered for myAccount (PAYE) or ROS (self-assessed)
• PAYE taxpayers will need to complete Forms 12 (available through ROS) for the tax years selected for refund
• Self-assessed taxpayer will need to complete Forms 11 (available through ROS) for each of the four years immediately prior to the claim. Please not that any outstanding taxes must be paid.

    In order to apply for the scheme/refund, buyers must enter the following information online:

• Property details including address and price
• Details of each first-time buyer and refund agreed
• Developer/Contractor details or
• Details of the Solicitor if self-building
• Upload a copy of the signed
• Balance of the deposit to be paid
• Contract completion date
• Mortgage details
• For self-builders, proof of drawdown of the first mortgage tranche payment

All details must be verified by the Developer/Contractor in the case of a new build, or by the purchaser’s Solicitor in the case of a self-build, before the refund can be paid out.

  For further details on the scheme, contact the Office of the Revenue Commissioners

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact Michael, Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie .  Alternatively, you can email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie or telephone : +353 53 94 21718 to arrange a viewing on our qualifying new builds.

As recovery rolls out across the South East, we look at how the local market performed last year and what we can expect in 2017.

Last year saw the appointment of our new Housing Minister, Simon Coveney and his ambitious plan: ReBuilding Ireland. The unveiling and widespread acceptance of this plan was probably the highlight of the property year – along with a relaxing of the Central Bank mortgage deposit rules –  but there were many, many lows. Without doubt, chronic lack of supply remains the critical issue and this is seen in the rising rental prices, record homelessness and a seeming stalemate within the developer community meaning that new supply remains well below demand for the third consecutive year. In particular, demand for housing in the capital increased by 10% while supply increased by a mere 1%.

Rentals prices increased nationwide by an average of 12% but Dublin and Cork saw increases of double that in key areas. An eleventh hour bill put forward by Minister Coveney – despite opposition from partners in government – aims to slow the rate of increase for the next three years to start with.  Rent caps of 4% per year introduced for the Dublin area are likely to spread to other urban areas over the next few months, north Wicklow will be first in line for that but south Wicklow and Wexford are not expected to face rental caps this year (unless universal application, as called for by Fine Fail, makes its way into legislation).

As for the first time buyers’ help-to-buy tax rebate scheme, whether this is a high point or a low point, really depends upon who you listen to.  The practical reality is that this initiative will only apply to a tiny proportion of buyers in today’s market.  If the government really wanted to impact the market, they would not have taken such a scenic route to avoid the perception of helping the developers.  The truth is that encouraging developers is exactly what is needed to get new housing units delivered as quickly as possible. This is something that the Minister has talked about and he has pledged to address the issue of building costs in the early part of 2017.  One effective way to do this might be to help bring down building costs by reducing the VAT rate, even temporarily, as we saw in the hospitality sector.  Unless building becomes commercially viable for developers and construction companies, there is no reason for them to take the risk.

But this needs to change.

From 2015 to the end of last year, the number of property purchases in Wicklow decreased from 1,402  to 1,271, mainly due to lack of supply rather than lack of demand, as evidenced by the price increases locally. A similar situation was seen in County Wexford where – despite price increases – the volume of transactions were down year-on-year  from 1,663 to 1,471.

With the population in a state of increase, employment continuing its upwards trajectory and mortgage funding in more plentiful supply than we have seen over the past eight years, demand is surging.  But without new housing, there is no way to service this demand.  Until new supply hits the market, prices will increase as competing buyers pay a ‘scarcity premium’ for any available homes in the right areas.

At the moment, for buyers, there are currently fewer than 700 available properties in County Wicklow and just shy of 1,100 available in County Wexford, that’s between six to nine months worth of supply. New homes are needed to bridge the gap between supply and demand as a matter of urgency.

Click here to view all of our new and second-hand homes in Counties Wicklow and Wexford.

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact Michael, Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie .  Alternatively, you can email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie or telephone : +353 53 94 21718 to arrange a viewing.

Here at Kinsella Estates we love what we do and the best part of our day is when we hand new buyers the keys to their dream home!

“Thank you for all work in getting us the keys to our new home.

Michael was very professional and always went above and beyond for us always 

The staff in the office were brilliant and always got back to us.

We would highly recommend Kinsella Estates to anyone buying a new or second home.”

Over the last few years we got to learn a lot more about the property market than ever before.  We have websites like Daft.ie listing most properties for sale around the country together with the asking prices, we have the National Property Price Register telling us achieved sales prices and, most recently, the CSO has started including cash purchases rather than just reporting on mortgaged property transactions.  All of this is helpful, it improves transparency in the marketplace and that’s good for everyone, not just buyers and sellers but us agents too!  The only problem is that most of  the statistics are coming from the sale of town houses and apartments.  It is much more difficult for rural homeowners to gauge the value of their home and particularly if their home has lands adjoining.  For rural homeowners thinking of selling, definitely talk to us and we can let you know about recent sales, achieved prices locally and current ready buyers in the market.

For rural properties, often times, there  are fewer interested buyers but this is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can mean less time wasting as only very interested parties tend to view.  Of course, this also means that it is crucial to get the listing, marketing and presentation right from the start.  It’s a cliché that there is only one opportunity to make a first impression but it’s also true.  A disappointed house-hunter will rarely re-visit or re-consider a property that they have already ruled out just with the promise of a clean-up or painting job.

When I or any of the team here at Kinsella Estates visit a home (before listing it for sale) we will always give feedback on the current presentation and give advice on any changes or cost-effective improvements that are likely to either increase the value of the home or increase the attractiveness of the property to buyers.

When it comes to doing this suggested work, we can always advise on what repairs or maintenance are necessary or those that will generate a return.  It is not about renovating your home prior to sale, this is unlikely to ever make financial sense for homeowners.

Ways to prepare your rural home for sale is to put together area and property maps, good quality photos if you have them although we will always take professional quality images for the sales brochure, and definitely compile a list of contents included in the sale.  We will always position a rural property by giving driving distances to the next largest towns, as this helps potential buyers who might be unfamiliar with the vicinity to decide if the location works for them.  As part of our online listings, Kinsella Estates will accurately pinpoint your location on Google Street View (an interactive satellite map) so that interested buyers can find your property, also, they can get a sense of where it is in relation to neighbouring towns.

In my experience, including proximity to local schools, clubs and other facilities is helpful.  We understand that no-one knows the property as well as the owner so we will listen to what you have to tell us and then package that information for interested viewers.

While it might sound a bit unusual, I advise sellers to put together the most recent utility bills, bin collection information and any other relevant information that a prospective buyer would need to know about the running of the property.   In recent years, buyers are aware of new septic tank regulations and will certainly be looking for evidence of compliance as standard.  Internally, a clutter-free environment is the most important thing.  Neutral decor is generally a safe bet, buyers don’t mind an older or dated property provided they can see the potential and the best way to show people potential it to empty it as much as possible.  The practice of clearing your home prior to sale is not just good for presentation, it is also a great way to get a  head start on moving!

Do not underestimate the power of curb appeal; in truth, the first impression is made as the house-hunters turn into your laneway or drive.  With that in mind, keep hedges trimmed, mow lawns and most importantly, remove junk from around the house and sheds.  Potted plants can brighten up any yard so this is an easy way to improve the overall impression.  Also, give the entrance pillars a coat of paint, remove weeds and make the drive accessible for multiple cars, if possible.

Even animal lovers will panic of they are greeted by a pack of barking dogs upon arrival; please ensure that all pets are under control during viewing times.  Similarly, if you have animals in paddocks around the home, do let us know about any special precautions needed when showing people around.

Finally, because rural homes are unique, please do understand that interested buyers are likely to have lots of questions, they will want the view the property more than once and will probably take a bit longer to make a decision.  Remember this is all leading to you finding the right buyer (or letting the right buyer find you and your home!).

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact myself (Michael), Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie . 

You can email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie or telephone : +353 53 94 21718     

Property Measures Announced in the Budget

We knew in advance of Budget ’17 that housing was going to be a priority so Michael Noonan’s budget speech contained very few surprises, if any, for the sector.

  In an earlier post, I detailed the Government’s Action Plan for Housing:  Rebuilding Ireland.  This plan sets out the housing problems to be tackled and steps that will be taken. While the issues are broken up into five categories or  ‘pillars’ they all come back to one common underlying problem, that is, the chronic lack of supply across all housing sectors from social to private to rental.  Developers and members of the construction industry have blamed the cost of building and budgetary measures were definitely needed to address this.  Unfortunately, this is not what we got on Budget Day.  Instead, we got a grant – by way of tax rebate – for first-time buyers purchasing newly built homes only.

This help-to-buy scheme for first-time buyers will give a rebate of income tax (already paid) of 5 per cent of the purchase value of a newly-built home, up to a value of €400,000. That translates to a maximum rebate of €20,000 in cash. Properties costing from €400,000 to €600,000 will qualify for the €20,000 rebate, but the scheme will not apply to homes over €600,000 in value. This is a temporary measure only, backdating to July 19th last and will run until the end of 2019. In practical terms, buyers of a new house costing €300,000 will qualify for a rebate worth €15,000, however, they will still need their €23,000 deposit (under the Central Bank rules) and they must have a combined income of €75,000.

While the rebate is designed to offset the cost of higher deposits required from first-time buyers, and in turn boost demand, it has been perceived by members of the sector as a grant to the developer. Irrespective of the designed purpose, in real terms, this is the least effective way to stimulate supply and is likely to simply increase prices for first-time buyers already struggling to afford their first home.

While the first-time buyer initiative has been deeply criticised across the industry, at least there was some attempt to address their concerns.  Those stuck in rental situations were not so lucky. At best, the help-to-buy scheme will create get a small portion on renters out of this market and into their own homes, and this should free up some rented accommodation.

  Other Property Measures

• Residential investors/landlords received a 5 per cent increase in their mortgage interest relief, from 75 per cent to 80 per cent in 2017 and this is expected to increase annually until it reaches 100 per cent again.
• The Home Renovation Incentive Scheme was extended further by two years, bringing it up to the end of 2018.
• The Rent a Room scheme had its tax-free income ceiling here has increased by €2,000 annually to bring it up to €14,000.

For specific queries or to speak with a local property expert about your buying and selling needs in Wexford, Wicklow and surrounding areas, contact myself (Michael), Alan or Eileen Kinsella at kinsellaestates.ie or email me directly on michael@kinsellaestates.ie and telephone: +353 53 94 21718