Three-bed semis will soon be a relic of our suburban past as developers rapidly switch over to higher density two-bedroom apartments and townhouses within the price range of first-time buyers.
The image of neat housing estates with identical rows of three-bed homes and spacious front and rear gardens is rapidly being consigned to the past as builders move away from the once stringent low-density planning regulations. The economic boom - and the consequent huge demand for starter homes - has had a major impact on the market.
Two-bedroom apartment and townhouse units have already eclipsed the three-bedroom semi-detached house as the main types of starter home now being sold. Demand continues unabated for well-located, well-designed apartments in the Greater Dublin area. Young couples and singles have long abandoned the extra rooms in favour of a more affordable mortgage.
A typical three-bedroom semi-detached house in the Dublin region is priced from £170,000 (#215,850) while a two-bedroom terraced townhouse is priced from £145,000 (#184,110).
Dublin estate agents, architects and property developers welcome the demise of the three-bed semi and the rising popularity of two-bedroom townhouses, duplexes and apartments. "It's a welcome change," says Ronan O'Driscoll of Hamilton Osborne King, adding: "The new three-bed semi won't be available in the next few years."
Hooke & MacDonald's Ken MacDonald says the market needs to cater for couples and singles with smaller units. Another agent specialising in new homes, Ross McParland, also sees no future for three-bed semis. "They'll be virtually extinct in the next few years."
Standard three-bedroom semi-detached houses with front and back gardens really took off in Ireland in the 1960s. The formula proved very popular. Low-density planning regulations stipulated a maximum of 10 houses to an acre. There was also a minimum size for gardens. These regulations set the scene for the suburban sprawl of homogenous housing estates that occurred during the 1970s and 1980s. Huge tracts of valuable land close to major towns and cities in Ireland were gobbled up.
The shortage of development land and rising land values in the late 1990s saw the planning authorities switch from low to high-density developments. With ratios of 15 to 20 units per acre now frequently available, gardens are often for common use. An increasing number of schemes have two and three-bed apartments, duplexes and terraced townhouses, and elsewhere in the site, four-bed homes for those trading up.
O'Driscoll says that developments with a mix of styles give buyers a wider choice and often have more attractive designs. "You still have what you could call `three-bed semi land' in Dublin in suburbs like Clonsilla, Swords and Lucan, and the further out of Dublin you go the more typical the semis are. Where once this type of house accounted for 85 per cent of sales, it now only accounts for 5 per cent of new homes."
MacDonald reports that demand is currently highest for one and two-bedroom units. "It's all down to affordability. In the 1980s first-time buyers went for three-bedroom semidetached houses, not out of desire, but because they didn't really have any choice. Then in the 1990s apartments and townhouses became a viable alternative."
According to Ross McParland, "mixed schemes are the ideal and allow for better social integration. More and more of the launches we handle are for apartments, but outside Dublin demand is still going strong for the traditional three-bed semi." Hooke & MacDonald have a number of upcoming launches, for instance in Clondalkin and Terenure, where two-bedroom units are predominant, reflecting the trend towards apartments. Ongar Wood, a new development launching shortly through Hamilton Osborne King, is a village type mixed scheme. This type of development is popular with a wide range of buyers, from the young couples to older couples looking to trade down.
