OPINION: Rapid house price rise makes it harder for people in Offaly to get on the property ladder

NEWS that in Offaly the average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in the final quarter of 2025 was €275,000, up 6.6% on a year ago, is very worrying for those trying desperately to get on the property ladder.

The average list price nationally rose by an average of 5.5% during 2025, according to the latest Daft.ie House Price Report released on Friday by Ireland’s largest property website, Daft.ie. Nationally, the average price of a three-bed semi-detached home in the final quarter of the year was just over €423,000.

Listed prices are now, on average, 41% above their pre-covid levels and just 10% below their Celtic Tiger peak.

A similar picture emerges from analysis of transactions registered in the Property Price Register and matched to the Daft.ie database, with early indications that transaction prices rose 7.4% during 2025.

The typical gap between the initial listed price and the ultimate transaction price has grown sharply since 2003 and, in late 2025, was 6.6% nationally.

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Important differences remain across regions, with the lowest inflation again seen in Dublin, where prices were up 3.1% year-on-year.

In Connacht-Ulster, on the other hand, prices rose by 11.6% during 2025.As has consistently been the case for over a decade, the increases in prices around the country stem from a lack of supply.

On December 1st, there were just 11,551 second-hand homes for sale nationwide. While this is up 7% on the same date a year previously, availability is less than half the 2015-2019 average of 26,000. Shortages in availability are much more acute outside Dublin (63% below the late 2010s) than in the capital (16% below).

Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons, Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said: “Across both list and transaction prices, it is clear that demand continues to significantly outpace supply in the sales market. An optimist will point to the slight slowdown in inflation, with the 5.5% increase in list prices below the 6.8% seen in 2024 – and to the modest increase in availability of second-hand homes.

However, this marks the twelfth year in a row of increasing prices. And, since the pandemic, the availability of homes to buy has become stuck at a much lower level than before – putting greater pressure on buyers.

The solution remains unchanged. A country that is building between 30,000 and 35,000 homes needs to double that total – across owner-occupied, social and rental segments – so that the housing reflects society, rather than society having to fit the housing stock.”

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Meanwhile across the Midlands hundreds of individuals and families are on council housing lists, many of them in limbo for several years.

The private market will simply never be able to make a serious dent in that list.

There is a shortage of the type of housing many of these people require on the private market so it would make sense both economically and socially for the county council to begin home construction in a serious manner.

But this requires funding from central Government and a review of the administration's current housing policy.

Most councils have land banks at their disposal which could be used for the development of new local authority housing estates.

The work would also provide a boost to the construction sector which has still not fully recovered from the Celtic Tiger crash,

It would also create jobs in town and villages in areas of the State which have seen very little benefit from the economic recovery which has largely been centred on Dublin and the other cities and bigger urban areas.

The resultant cash injection would provide much needed stimulus to the wider economy of more rural areas while at the same time providing housing for families and individuals.

Local authority housing has served the State well in the past and virtually every town has large numbers of estates which were developed by successive councils over the past 100 years.

It is now time for the Government to revisit that housing tradition and provide the necessary funding to ensure the housing crisis is tackled in an effective and meaningful manner.