Record levels of spending were recorded in the Galway property market last year with €681 million changing hands, up more than a fifth from 2016.
The vast majority of this, €574 million, was in the residential sector, where house prices jumped by more than eight percent.
This is according to the latest figures on cash flow in the Irish property market released by Cushman and Wakefield real estate agency.
Nearly 85% of all spending on properties in Galway was for homes, slightly above the national average of 80%.
While the numbers might be indicative of a positive economic outlook, they’re deeply problematic for Galway where the number of new properties being built hasn’t kept pace with population growth, putting a lot of pressure on the rental sector.
A total of €17.9 billion changed hands in the Irish property market last year, with Dublin taking the lions share of just under €10 billion.
Outside of Dublin, Cork saw the largest spend of €1.6 billion, accounting for nearly a tenth of the total market and up by a third on 2016.
Nationally, the residential sector saw sales worth €14.4 billion, a 24% annual increase, and four times more than was spent on commercial properties.
The commercial spend nearly halved from €6.1 billion in 2016, to just €3.5 billion last year.
In fact the overall balance of spending between commercial and residential properties has been shifting massively towards residential sector for several year now.
In 2014 €14.6 billion was spent in the Irish property market, and that split roughly 60:40 in favour of residential properties, last year the balance was 80:20.
This lack of spending on commercial properties comes at a time when Galway, and the entire West of Ireland, are seeing an unprecedented number of commercial properties being left vacant.
Residential figures for this report were compiled from sales figures in the Property Price Register 2017 and residential investment in the rental sector.
The commercial figures were taken from Cushman and Wakefield’s own sales, along with data provided by Sherry Fitzgerald.
