13/10/2016 – Independent.ie

Daft.ie, which has 2.21 million users every month, said the amount of inquiries on its site for new builds had more than doubled in the 24 hours since Finance Minister Michael Noonan had announced a property rebate scheme.

The company said that compared to the average hit rates for any other day in 2016 it had led to a 130% increase in interest.

Daft.ie said inquiries about new homes had been greatest in the Dublin area, along with the commuter belt around the capital, followed by Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford cities.

Martin Clancy from Daft.ie said: “The spike in searches on Tuesday was quite large and certainly points to an increased interest in new homes on the back of the announcement by the Government.”

The online property firm said more than 1,000 property searches were run on its website every minute.

The new initiative has been criticised by some estate agents, economists and industry experts over fears that it will immediately lead to an increase in asking prices as developers and auctioneers look on it as giving buyers an extra 20,000 euro.

Daft’s latest report put the average value of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in South County Dublin at about 500,000 euro compared to less than 100,000 euro in most of rural Munster and Connacht.

The Central Bank said Mr Noonan’s 5% tax rebate scheme for first-time buyers did not breach its strict mortgage lending rules, designed to prevent a repeat of the devastating property bubble.

It warned last month that f irst-time buyers had to save for up to four years to buy a three bedroom house in some areas.

Mr Noonan said: “There is a problem.

“There are no starter homes being built that young people can buy.

“What is being provided now is much more expensive, the young couples, the nurse, teacher, the guard, middle grade public servants, they just can’t buy houses.

“This is to help them put a deposit together.”

One of the Central Bank’s most startling findings in its latest analysis of house prices was that the average deposit for a first-time buyer in south county Dublin was now 76,000 euro – about double what they would have needed two years ago.

On the southside of the city and in the city centre, deposits were about 50,000 euro, again about double what was needed in the middle of 2014.

The experts said deposit demands had increased by 10,000 to 22,000 euro in other parts of the city and county in the same period but by less than 5,000 euro outside the capital.