Westmeath housing prices up by 14% at end of 2024

The latest property price survey issued by Daft.ie showed that housing prices in Westmeath during the final three months of 2024 were 14% higher than they had been a year earlier.

The property website found that the average price of a home in the Lake County was now €292,000, which is 40% above the level seen at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And the rate of increase in the price of a house or apartment in Westmeath grew faster than the national and provincial average during 2024, with the cost of housing nationally rising by 9% over the last year, while Leinster saw an 11.1% average increase in prices.

Housing prices have been increasing at a slower rate in neighbouring Roscommon, where at the end of 2024 they were 4% higher than a year previously. This was broadly in line with 2023, when housing prices in Roscommon went up by 3%.

The average price of a home in Roscommon now stands at €204,000, which is 45% above the level seen at the onset of the pandemic.

Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin, said: "2024 saw the largest increase in listed prices since 2017. This is, once again, a story of weak supply and strong demand.

"With incomes and employment growing, demand for owner-occupied housing is likely growing at close to 5% per year.

"But while the number of newly-built homes being transacted is increasing, it is growing much more slowly than demand."