Longford property prices fall by €5k, report finds

The report for Q2 2020 shows that the median asking price for a property in the county is now €110,000. This is an increase of €500 compared to this time last year.

However, despite this overall trend, asking prices for a 3-bed semi-detached house in the county stayed steady, remaining at €100,000 in the quarter. Prices for this house type are up by €5,000 compared to this time last year.

Meanwhile, the asking price for a 4-bed semi-detached house in Longford fell over the quarter by €4,950 to €115,000. This means prices in the segment are up €22,525 compared to this time last year, when they stood at €92,475.

The number of properties for sale in Longford on MyHome.ie stayed flat in the last quarter and was up 4.5% on this time last year.

The average time for a property to go sale agreed in the county after being placed up for sale now stands at four months.

The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, Chief Economist at Davy, said the negative asking price inflation seen throughout the country had to be viewed in the context of far fewer listings in the second three months of 2020 compared to a year ago.

“Our price measure is based on just 3,700 new properties listed for sale over the past three months, down 64% from 10,200 one year ago,” he said.

“Observed prices were therefore clearly biased towards those vendors willing to put their homes on the market despite the enormous uncertainty of the Covid-19 outbreak.”

He added that despite a highly uncertain outlook for the property market, there was cause for some optimism.

“The negative impact of Covid-19 could still have a more slow burn impact on the Irish housing market than many participants anticipate.

“That said, the clear anecdotal evidence is that activity in the housing market is returning to normal levels and with greater confidence than estate agents had expected.”

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie said said the significant drop-off in activity between April-June meant that a clearer picture of Covid-19’s effect would not be seen until the July to September period.