Mayo property prices remain at €160,000

PROPERTY prices in Mayo have remained unchanged for the third quarter in a row, according to the latest MyHome.ie Property Report in association with Davy.

The report for Q1 2020 shows that the median asking price for a property in the county has stayed steady at €160,000. The last time asking prices were different was this time last year, when the figure stood at €155,000.

Continuing with this overall trend, asking prices for a three-bed semi-detached house in the county remained steady at €145,000. This is the fourth quarter in a row that prices in the segment have remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, the asking price for a four-bed semi-detached house in Mayo stayed steady in the quarter at €150,000. This means prices have dropped by €3,750 when compared to Q1 2019.

The number of properties for sale in Mayo on MyHome.ie fell by 6.8% in the last quarter and was down 6.3% 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 just over six and a half months.

The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, chief economist at Davy, said that indicators of activity suggested the housing market had recorded a decent start to the year.

“After activity was depressed by Brexit in 2019, residential property transactions in January were up 6% year-on-year, while agreed sales and mortgage approvals in Q1 were both up 10% annually. Similarly, housing completions rose to 21,124 in 2019, up 18% on the previous year.”

However, he noted that Covid-19 and the measures needed to fight it would likely kill off any green shoots we have seen so far this year. “For now, the immediate outlook is an illiquid market with depressed pricing among the very few transactions that do take place. In this context, our forecast for 2% Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) inflation through 2020 now looks optimistic.”

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie, said that despite the huge uncertainty caused by Covid-19, there were positives to take. “MyHome.ie analysis of the Chinese property market – the first country to be affected by Covid-19 – shows that after an initial hard shock, it has bounced back relatively rapidly. Technological advances also mean that online viewings are now being utilised en masse and have become hugely important for agents, sellers and buyers – perhaps signalling a future trend.”

Full details of the report can be found at www.myhome.ie/reports.