Report shows 9% rise in asking prices for homes in Westmeath

The amount of housing under construction may be going up, but asking prices for residential properties are continuing to rise also, according to the latest quarterly report from property website Daft.ie.

The report showed a particularly notable increase in asking prices in Westmeath, which were up by 9.4% in the second quarter of this year when compared with the same period in 2023.

This was a higher rate of increase than the national average, and it put the current average asking price for a residential property in the Lake County at €292,982.

Property prices also increased in neighbouring counties, albeit at a slower rate.

In Roscommon, prices were up by 3.7% when compared with a year previously, and properties in the county were being listed for an average of €212,196.

And in Offaly, an annual increase of 5.6% was reported, bringing the average advertised price of a home in the county to €264,477.

Housing prices nationally rose by an average of 3.8% during the second quarter of this year, according to the Daft.ie report, with the typical listed price nationwide standing at €340,398.

This was 6.7% higher than in the same period a year earlier, and 35% higher than at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report noted that, across the country, the typical sale price in the second quarter of 2024 was 3.5% above the listed price.

"Availability in the sales market has been consistently tight since the start of the year and thus it is not surprising that prices nationally recorded their largest three-month increase since 2020," commented Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin.