Self-builders in ROI more bullish than in NI

2022 recorded a fall in construction activity but early statistics show the trend could be reversing.

Commencements in both NI and ROI were down for one-off houses in 2022 as compared to 2021, but January 2023 figures indicate the trend could be reversing.

In ROI, 4,695 commencement notices were filed in 2022 for one-off houses as compared to 5,301 the year before. That represents an 11 per cent drop in activity, slightly less of a fall than for the residential sector as a whole.

But in January 2023, figures were up as compared to the previous year with a 17 per cent jump in activity from 194 to 224 commencements for one-off houses filed throughout ROI. The increase for the residential sector as a whole was lower, at 13 per cent.

In NI, 3,373 detached homes were added to the housing stock between April 2021 and April 2022. But starts in NI and the Island of Man were down 13 per cent in 2022, as measured by the number of new home registrations for the NHBC ten-year warranty. NI was the only region in all of the UK to witness a decrease in activity.

House prices unaffordable

Kildare and Wicklow are the least affordable areas in ROI, according to the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland. The metric looks at the gap (if any) between the total purchase limit available to average-incomeearning couples, and average new house sales values.

Meanwhile the average residential transaction in Q3 2022 was €370k, or 7.7 times the average ROI income of €48k, according to the Q4 2022 MyHome report by Davy.

The income to house price ratio is similar in the UK – the difference is that in the UK house prices are falling because of high mortgage interest rates which are trending above 6 per cent, said Davy’s Conall MacCoille.

In NI the latest statistics show that the average house price, at £233k for July-