Report shows Meath property a magnet for buyers priced out of Dublin

The lack of supply of affordable homes in Dublin is pushing buyers out of the capital to commuter counties like Meath, resulting in a sharp rise in sales and values in the county.

A new study by Myhome.ie based on an analysis of the Property Price Registers shows the number of house sales nationally has increased by 8.4 per cent in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year. However, the stand-out feature of the survey was the rise in sales and values in commuter counties.
The number of sales in Meath is up a staggering 43 per cent and the value of transactions is up 47 per cent in the county. In Wicklow, sales are up 21 per cent and values are up 25 per cent.
Meath had the fifth highest number of sales during the first six months of 2017, with 970 transactions recorded.
Nationally, there were 23,148 sales in that period with the value of those transactions rising from €5.1bn to €5.8bn, an increase of 15pc. Dublin led the way with 7,455 sales followed by Cork (2,532), Kildare (1,212) and Galway (1,138), and Meath (970).
According to Angela Keegan, Managing Director of Myhome.ie, the rise in sales in commuter belt counties, indicates that the lack of supply of affordable homes is pushing people outside Dublin.
"The downside of this trend and something which has been highlighted in recent reports, is the increase in commuting times for people working in Dublin."
Figures from Census 2016 show that one in five of Meath's working population have a commute of an hour or more and 3,565 have a commute of an hour and a half or more each day.
 

See our 16 page property supplement in this week's Meath Chronicle to see properties currently on the market across the county.