Housing in Letterkenny

ctc_celtic

just looking at houses in letterkenny and surround areas lately.
i've noticed that the price of secondhand house has dropped or at the most leveled out since the end of last year.
i think that with so much new builds going on, people only want to buy new houses and the secondhand houses can be on the market for ages.
but new houses seem to be sold very quickly and prices have generally continued to increase.

anyone else think that letterkenny housing is continuing to grow but with no new jobs being made to sustain it?
is the building industry keeping letterkenny going?

this is probably a national trend, but letterkenny is my example

Gillie

Same thing is happening in Sligo.
More so with Apartments though!
Swan point and Citygate (Towngate perhaps!) are two huge developments.
Both would be aimed at the Professional Rental sector as opposed to Students. Having said that two new financial centres have opened in Sligo in recent months so a lot of ppl would be moving in from outside the area.
It's possible that there are other industries moving in to fill demand?!?

muffler

Cant say I've noticed any great difference with the housing trend but then again I haven't been looking in depth at the situation.

What I have noticed is that a lot of young couples are buying their first house in a new estate and then one of two things happen. They have come in from rural backgrounds and cant hack it in the built up areas so they try to get back to the country again and obviously have to sell their house in the estate.

The other situation a few of them have found themselves in is that they buy a used house in an estate only to discover that there are a lot of social problems in the area which they were unaware of. Again they try to beat a hasty retreat to either another estate or out into the wilds.

The common theme is that there is another second house for sale - a bit of vicious circle in a way.

K-9

ctc_celtic wrote:

anyone else think that letterkenny housing is continuing to grow but with no new jobs being made to sustain it?
is the building industry keeping letterkenny going?

this is probably a national trend, but letterkenny is my example

Think this applies to other provincial towns as well. Mullingar and Portlaise being examples and of course adding to the up to 25% of houses unoccupied.

There does seem to be a lot of rented houses empty as well as retail units.

I think the construction boom is at an end. Who was it at the height of the dot com boom said " When everybodies at it its time to get out"

donegalman1

The Rental market dropped in Letterkenny particularly after so many student accommodation blocks sprang up. Many houses locally were owned as second properties and with little chance of sustained rental revenue, some are starting to sell up rather than have a second mortgage.

I agree many are starting to buy in new estates as some of the deals for kitchens etc are quite good. Also many second hand premises are almost as expensive as new builds and then need refurbishment of sorts.

The whole talk in the media of our reliance on construction has bound to make many wary.

ctc_celtic

The whole talk in the media of our reliance on construction has bound to make many wary

yeah its given me more to think about.
I'm currently renting and have a healthy deposit saved now, so i ideally like to buy. i'm from a very quite area of letterkenny and so is my partner, so i dont really want to move into an estate, but second hand prices are so much dearer than an estate house.

what i cant understand is, houses that are maybe 15-20 years old are valued very high, but aren't selling. i've seen quite a few that have been on the market since this time last year.
is it a case that these houses are over valued in todays market, but the owners wont admit it? and therefore its forcing first time buyers to buy in estates?

Dun na nGal

I can't understand why so many new retail developments are springing up when so many are lying empty-the new shopping center at mc ginley motors, big units beside sister sara's,new units and offices in mountain top and ballyraine- to name a few. There must tax incentives or something or developers wouldn't keep building them.
Also, I always wondered why they don't take advantage of the tourism grants and build a swimming pool and playground with a student campus, they could then be rented as holiday appartments in summer.

donegalman1

Most of the retail units you mention have had serious bother getting tennants simply because they are looking for too much rent. Many were approached to go into the new s.c. but declined when they heard the rent. Having said that the units beside Sister Saras and more of McGinleys units shall be occupied in the coming weeks.

muffler

donegalman1 wrote:

and more of McGinleys units shall be occupied in the coming weeks.

I think I heard this about a year ago also

K-9

muffler wrote:

I think I heard this about a year ago also

True, there does seem to be a lot of units lying around the town and I kind of wonder where are the businesses going to come for them. Same with office space.

Dun na nGal wrote:

I can't understand why so many new retail developments are springing up when so many are lying empty-the new shopping center at mc ginley motors, big units beside sister sara's,new units and offices in mountain top and ballyraine- to name a few. There must tax incentives or something or developers wouldn't keep building them.

There was tax relief for student accomodation but I don't think retails units.

A lot of this could be that say 4/5 years there was a shortage of retail space and LK wasn't that great of a shopping town.So retails units where designed all over the town and planning went in. However between design, planning, financing and getting them built it might have taken 2/3 years to get them built. Now there seems to be a glut of retail units. Maybe a case of over supply.

ctc_celtic

i thinks thats the case with the building beside Sisters Sara'a, the plan was alway to build offices beside it, but Sister Sara's was planned almost 10 years ago, and then there probably was a big demand for them.

Dun na nGal

I know somone who priced the sister sara's units and was told the rent per year for the ground floor was €75,000!!!

muffler

Dun na nGal wrote:

I know somone who priced the sister sara's units and was told the rent per year for the ground floor was €75,000!!!

Crazy, crazy, crazy money

byte

Jaysus, that's 6,250 a month. You'd need a good turnover to cover that.

donegalman1

A small unit in the courtyard is over €1000 a week. Not exactly prime retail space and MCGinleys is supposed to be expensive too.

Many developers account for a slow take up but MCGinleys will never be able to have a launch at this rate.

I see work in progress at the unit beside Sister Saras.