A report issued by the ESRI points out that there is currently no housing bubble. They predicted that for the foreseeable future, prices and rents would continue to increase due to the problems with supply and demand. The ERSI estimate that there were 12,700 units built in 2016 which is less than the government’s official figure of 15,000.
The construction industry index for May rose again for the 45th consecutive month to 63.6. it was 61.3 in April and this represents the fastest pace of growth since February 2016.
Over the last year, 35,000 were approved for a mortgage with just 27,000 drawing one down. This indicates that 8,000 of those who were approved could not secure a home. Goodbody Stockbrokers have said that there is a clear ‘mismatch’. During April - June, the value of mortgages drawdown was €1.65bn. Of the mortgages drawn-down, FTB’s and mover’s accounted for 85%. In terms of insolvency, there was an increase in applications of 71% during Q2.
Nearly 8,000 applications for the Help-to-Buy scheme were placed during H1 2017 with 5,000 of these proving successful. The average grant claim was for €14,500. The Housing Agency has suggested that it would ‘be a mistake now to withdraw it’ and that it should change from a ‘grant to a secondary loan’ which would help regulate the number of applications.
Property prices in Northern Ireland fell 3.7% in one year with the average price of a home now standing at £148,499 during Q2. 60% of home loans in the full year to March were to FTB’s.
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