New homes pipeline busy after budget boost

The new homes market is looking lively, with an increase in the number of launches of new developments this autumn over previous years. Some developers have announced new schemes since last month’s budget measures aimed at boosting demand from first-time buyers.

That said, it is difficult to get an overall estimate of what has come or is coming to the market in the last two months of 2016 and the early part of 2017. It does seem that demand will still far outstrip supply.

Estimates of who is buying also vary widely: one agency estimates that 35 per cent of buyers are first-timers, although that depends very much on the scheme, while another puts it at 59 per cent.

New homes in about 65 different developments, mostly in or near Dublin, have been launched or are soon to be launched by four agents who gave details of the schemes being sold either now or in early 2017. Most are terraced, semidetached or detached three- and four-bedroom houses, and very few are for sale for less than €300,000.

DNG's Gemma Lanigan says house completions in the commuter counties of Louth, Kildare and Wicklow are about equal to completions in Dublin. DNG will launch sales of three-bed semis from around €250,000 in Oaktree, Tully Road, Kildare town, in January. There will be between 140 and 150 houses in the scheme, with four-bed semis being launched in 2017.

DNG is also launching houses for about €300,000 for sale in the final phases of a few other developments. There will be a new release of three-bed houses in early 2017 in ElderHeath, Kiltipper, Dublin 24, costing from €300,000.

Another phase of Dodderbrook, Ballycullen Road, Dublin 24 – a mix of three- and four-bed terraced, semidetached and detached houses – will be launched in February 2017 with houses costing about €350,000-€360,000.

Last phase

The last phase of Castlegrange, Castaheany, Dublin 15, will be launched in February 2017. Three-bed semidetached houses will cost about €315,000.

Meanwhile, Cairn Homes is currently live on five sites in the greater Dublin area (Parkside on the Malahide Rd, Albany in Killiney, Marianella in Rathgar, Ashbourne and Hanover Quay) which will deliver in excess of 1,150 units in total. The company plans to build on a further five schemes within 12 months, delivering an additional 2,750 units. In early 2017 it will start work on a site in Greystones and on its site in Adamstown.

Cairn also recently launched Churchfields in Ashbourne, with prices starting from €272,000. “We believe this offers exceptional value for first time buyers and young families alike as well as those wishing to move out of the city but to keep their daily work commute to under an hour each day,” said Michael Stanley of Cairn.

Hooke & MacDonald has sold the first phase of two-bedroom apartments and duplexes from €165,000-€270,000 in New Priory, Hole in the Wall Road, Donaghmede, Dublin 13, the reconstructed Priory Hall development. It expects to launch the second phase of the properties in summer 2017 at “keen prices”.

Sherry FitzGerald is selling 41 homes in Belltree, Clongriffin, Dublin 13 from €275,000 to €365,000; Savills will have houses costing from €265,000 to €365,000 in Drury Mills, Saggart, Co Dublin for sale early in 2017. It sold 60 houses in Alderlie, Adamstown, launched in October and further units are on release now. The mix of three- and four-bed terraced, semidetached and detached houses cost from €270,000-€350,000.

On November 12th, it will launch a similar mix of homes costing from €300,000 to more than €500,000 in Carton Wood, Maynooth, Co Kildare and homes from €300,000-€390,000 in Barnageeragh Cove, Skerries, Co Dublin.

Detached houses

At the other end of the new homes market are developments such as the one just launched by DNG on Butterfield Avenue in Rathfarnham, Dublin 14: 10 new detached houses there cost from €700,000-€1 million.

Five four- and five-bed detached houses for sale through Savills in Emsworth Park on Chapel Lane in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, cost from €745,000, and the last 10 of 22 five-bed detached houses at Thormanby Hill in Howth cost from €1.475 million.

Sherry FitzGerald launched Garville Drive, a development of just eight four-bed houses in Rathgar costing from €1.075 million-€1.225 million, and five more houses in Tivoli Place in Dún Laoghaire at prices ranging from €750,000 to €1.050 million.

The schemes range from small infill developments to big schemes such as Cualanor, the Cosgrave Brothers’ development of a total of 900 houses and apartments on 31 acres on the old Dún Laoghaire golf course that launched in May this year. Forty homes have been sold already through Hooke & MacDonald with 10 more to be sold in 2016, and 15 in 2017 from €615,000.

Mid price-range developments include Abbot’s Grove in Knocklyon, Dublin 16, where Sherry FitzGerald launched 31 homes costing from €369,000 to €445,000 this autumn.

Coming up in early 2017 are developments such as Knockrabo on Mount Anville Road, Dublin 14, where DNG will be selling three-, four- and five-bed houses; city centre schemes such as Fitzwilliam Quay in Ringsend, Dublin 4, where four-bed townhouses will go on sale through Hooke & MacDonald; and Co Kildare schemes such as Piper’s Hill in Naas, where the first of 120 three-, four- and five-bed houses costing from €335,000 will go on sale though Savills.

Other developments likely to be expensive are two-, three- and four-bed apartments and houses in a scheme being built at Marianella on Orwell Road in Rathgar, to be sold by Hooke & MacDonald and Knight Frank.