Why is house stock so low?

Cocobeans101

Hi All,

I'm currently sale agreed on a house. I've been looking for over two years. The current owners are looking for downsize but can't seem to find anywhere. I'm afraid that they are going to pull out.

Any idea why there are so few houses on the market at the moment? Brexit? Corona? People worried about a pending recession.

Anyone here going to sell and have decided to hang on and why?

Thanks

spiralout

Very little stock in galway too. Was at a opening viewing on saturday. It was very busy. We were talking to the agent after and she said they have been struggling for stock for some time.

fago

Since mid Sep there's been very little in Galway - as far as I ascertain any existing stock pre 90s is struggling because it doesn't reflect the renovation cost in the asking price. And then sellers will hold on, since they believe the premium for the better location means the price should be higher.

Examples of fixer uppers gone sale agreed 2-3 times and coming back on the market after the builder's quote.

Cocobeans101

Yeah, when it the market slowed last autumn, I thought it was concern over Brexit but it hasn't seemed to pick up at all.

Where I'm looking, it seems like there isn't much on the market outside an executor's sale

Bass Reeves

As well house types build in Ireland are often not reflective of what is needed. Myself and the better half have spoken about it.ee are in out mid 50's living in a 4 bed house on a 3/4 acre site. It's a former with a large bedroom downstairs as well as a shower room.

We have talked about downsizing in 10 ISH years time and buying a house in local village next to amenities. However big issue would be if we did only houses available are generally 3 bed semi or similar townhouses. That is not really an option. We were in the states a few years ago and when people downsize they have real options such as decent Apartment's or retirement villages in Ireland you have very limited options

Cocobeans101

surely these are issues that have affect Ireland for years? Why the sudden plateau in the market?

Ray Palmer

Really simple if you want housing stick now you needed to be building 2 years ago. If you want housing stock in 2 years you need to start planning now.

Bass Reeves

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Really simple if you want housing stick now you needed to be building 2 years ago. If you want housing stock in 2 years you need to start planning now.

And that is a fairly short time span. We need to reconfigure the Irish housing stock. If people want to downsize from largish 3&4 bed houses there needs to be options there. People that downsize require may as large living areas as present house but with only two bedrooms not a two bed townhouse with a narrow stairs one bathroom up stairs and a single kitchen/dining/living room

The other issue is when people consider downsizing they also wish to turn part of a lifetimes equity in to a cash sum to help with there retirement. When they start to do it unless they move to a lower priced area there is no equity released on the project. They then decide that the best option is to stay put

Ray Palmer

Bass Reeves wrote: »

And that is a fairly short time span. We need to reconfigure the Irish housing stock. If people want to downsize from largish 3&4 bed houses there needs to be options there. People that downsize require may as large living areas as present house but with only two bedrooms not a two bed townhouse with a narrow stairs one bathroom up stairs and a single kitchen/dining/living room

The other issue is when people consider downsizing they also wish to turn part of a lifetimes equity in to a cash sum to help with there retirement. When they start to do it unless they move to a lower priced area there is no equity released on the project. They then decide that the best option is to stay put

Big issue with downsizing is people want to stay in the community they lived. There are very little options to do this in large suburban environments that have been there decades.

They could adapt some of the houses in the areas to be two or three different residence. Thus freeing up houses in well serviced areas. Read recently 25% of the population in dublin 5 is older than 65. That most likely means 25% of housing there is under occupied. If you converted half of the houses to be split and the remainder sold that would be a huge impact on housing. Even only 10% done this way would make a massive difference

riclad

Our population has increased in the last 10 years,
after the crash in 2008, many builders went out of business .
We would need to build 30k house,s per year to keep up demand.
We need to build more 1 and 2 bed units so if someone sells, they can downsize.Say someone sells a house in dublin ,they need another house to move into,
they may not want to buy an apartment and have less space and no garden .
Why sell a house for 280k,if it costs 300k to buy a 2bed apartment .

beauf

Cocobeans101 wrote: »

Hi All,

I'm currently sale agreed on a house. I've been looking for over two years. The current owners are looking for downsize but can't seem to find anywhere. I'm afraid that they are going to pull out.

Any idea why there are so few houses on the market at the moment? Brexit? Corona? People worried about a pending recession.

Anyone here going to sell and have decided to hang on and why?

Thanks

Did you miss the last 15yrs or something?

The reason is the last 20yrs

Diarmuid

Here's another reason https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/rezoning-of-dublin-city-lands-for-up-to-1-900-homes-dropped-1.4199096

beggars_bush

FG bot

Definitely more smaller detached and semi detached one storey houses are needed in every area to allow older people downsize