Auctioneers' diaries busy as viewings resume

For the first time in five and a half months, house-hunters seeking to buy homes are from this week allowed do more than just walk or drive past and pore over the estate agents’ pictures.

It’s been a long five months since the Covid restrictions put a halt to house viewings – and as the May 10 relaxation date drew near, auctioneers began bracing themselves for a deluge of enquiries.

“There is a lot of pent-up demand – with much of it coming from first-time buyers,” says Aidan Davitt, of Sherry FitzGerald Davitt and Davitt Auctioneers.

It’s largely first-time buyers that Andrew Duncan of DNG Duncan has also been hearing from – and as soon as the lifting of the restrictions was announced, his appointment slots for the next two weeks were filled.

Good news for sellers – although less so for buyers – is that prices are on the way up.

“In Mullingar they are up €20,000-€30,000 since before Christmas,” says Eddie King of King Auctioneers, who points out that a scan of the Property Price Register will demonstrate that demand has been so great that sales continued right through the restrictions period.

Buying a house without ever setting foot inside it is something few house purchasers choose to do – but there have been buyers who have bravely opted for that course this year: at least three buyers who bought homes via Duncans were able only to drive or walk past the homes of their choice, while Davitts made a number of off-plan sales of homes in the new 30-home development going in to Gleann Petit.

“We’ve been doing virtual walk-throughs of properties,” says Aidan. “It’s been useful for people: they’ve been able to ask us to show certain things or zoom in on items.”

It actually proved quite an efficient solution for the times in which we are in, enabling the auctioneer conducting the walk-through to show a property to several people within a half-hour time slot.

“We will probably still use it for people who live a distance away and who don’t want to travel,” says Andrew.

Aidan says most of the interest is coming either from people working locally, or who have ties to the area: “Covid and the lockdowns have caused problems – but they have given people the opportunity to refocus on where they are going and to looking at their longer-term situations

“There have been a lot of enquiries the whole way along – but because of the restrictions it’s been via phone or email, and we are finding a lot of interest from first-time buyers

“The demand is for town dwellings – and probably even a different style of town dwelling: where traditionally people were looking for three or four-bed semis, they are now considering different options such as duplexes and even larger apartments.

“The change has come partly because of the change in what is being offered, due to things like changes in housing densities but also because people like being in town and being able to walk to pubs or restaurants or to schools.”

Davitt – a member of Seanad Éireann – has always held that more houses were needed in Mullingar, arguing that due to the relative scarcity, prices did not fall here so drastically after the economic crash – proof that there was not an oversupply in the town at that time.

As a result of the strong demand and a limited number of available properties, he reckons prices this year will be strong.

Duncan, a Fine Gael representative on Westmeath County Council, says supply is back somewhat on the situation of a year ago – but he opines that prices have still not attained a level at which developers would be happy to start building on greenfield sites.

“It s expensive to build,” he says, explaining that building regulation changes which require that all new houses now have an A-rating are a factor.

“There’s a lot of work into building an A-rated house: material costs are high; then you have Brexit,” he says.

Another significant issue is the fact that there are too few tradespeople: “There are no blocklayers; there are no electricians; no carpenters,” he says, pointing out that after the crash, few were encouraging school leavers to look at forging a future in those fields.

What he finds greatest demand for is more modern properties in the ‘newer’ estates such as Greenpark, Lakepoint, Glenmore Wood.

Similarly, modern one-offs out of town attract a lot of interest, and there is great demand in neighbouring towns as well. “I’ve sold four new houses in Killucan for €270,000 apiece,” said Eddie King on Friday. The houses had been offered for sale just the previous Saturday.

One of the reasons there is so much demand is that many people whose mortgage applications were on hold because they were on the PUP are now back on a regular wage again, he suggests.