House prices in Carlow & Kilkenny see increases higher than the national average between July & September 2020

House prices have increased sharply despite the economic shock of the pandemic, with a national increase of 4.8% in the third quarter of this year.

Researchers at Daft.ie say it’s an unexpected trend in their data, given elevated rates of unemployment.

However the number of homes being sold on the site has fallen to just 17,700, down a around a third on last year, and the lowest level since 2006.

In Kilkenny though prices for this time frame were 9% higher compared to a fall of 3% a year ago. The average house price across the county is now €235,000, 78% above its lowest point.

While in Carlow, prices for the same period were 6% higher, compared to a fall of 1% a year ago. The average house price in Carlow is now €198,000, 69% above its lowest point.

Professor Ronan Lyons from Daft.ie says the market for houses and apartments has had a very dramatic turnaround between July and September noting “If anything perhaps spending more time at home has convinced a lot of homeowners that they perhaps might invest even more money so in the months between June & Sept we saw there was a jump up almost 5% in just three months, that’s quite a big increase given it’s just three months, if we were having this conversation three months ago, we’d have been talking about prices being a couple of percentage points lower than they were this time last year, now we’re talking about property prices being a couple of percentage higher”.