Kilkenny house prices soar to peak Celtic Tiger era levels

Soaring house prices in Kilkenny city and county are now approaching peak Celtic Tiger levels again.

Some types of homes in Kilkenny have increased in price by 23% year-on-year, according to the latest house price report released by Daft.ie.

These increases can be explained by a shortage of houses coming to market and people having more expenditure due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The report showed huge price increases in all house types in Kilkenny over the past year.

The average asking price of a house in Kilkenny now stands at €258,986, up from €219,638 this time last year, representing a jump of 18%.

One-bedroom apartments are up 8.5% year-on-year up to €94,000. Two-bedroom apartments are up 21.9% to €129,000.

Three-bed homes have risen 20.2% up to €179,000. Four bed homes are up 22.5% to €355,000. While the price of five-bedroom houses is up 19.5% to €363,000 currently.

The report also reveals that house prices in Kilkenny are just 6.3% lower than their highest price during the Celtic Tiger era back in 2007 and almost double the price they were at the lowest point of the housing slump in 2013 – up 95.7%.

The stock of new houses available to buy in Kilkenny was down 28% on the same period last year.

In explaining this strong increase in house prices, Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics Trinity College Dublin and author of the report said: “Across the country as a whole, the average price rose by 13% – or nearly €33,000 – over the last 12 months.

“To put this in context, this rate of inflation is higher than the previous peak of nearly 12% in mid-2017 and is only surpassed by late 2014, the surge of demand before Central Bank rules came in.

“Housing supply ground to a halt, while housing demand – especially in the first-time buyer cohort – expanded rather than contracted. Demand expanded because of the very peculiar nature of this economic crisis, compared to others.

“While some sectors were almost obliterated overnight, and survived only with government support and forbearance from lenders, large parts of the economy – especially those on higher incomes – were unaffected other than a reorganization of how work got done.

“And with far fewer outlets for consumer expenditure, housing became a sink for savings.,” Mr Lyons concluded.