By Conor Power,Irishexaminer.com
Copyright irishexaminer
“The price bracket from €500,000 to €600,000 would be the most challenging within the new homes market as this falls just out of the HTB threshold,” says Elizabeth Hegarty, Divisional Director at Savills in Cork, “so buyers in some cases will opt to buy a smaller house to utilise the scheme.”
Today’s first-time buyer is very switched onto the various schemes in place for their benefit and usually come very well prepared compared to their predecessors from 15 years ago. This is to be expected in a more challenging market where purchasers need to have their ducks in a row and be able to act quickly when the right opportunity comes along.
“I find that first-time buyers these days are very well educated on their options and savvy to what is going on in the market,” says Elizabeth. “In most cases, the buyer comes to us with their AIP (Approval in Principle) in place and an idea of budget; ready to start their home-buying journey.
“Buyer criteria have certainly changed where they are not as area-specific as they once were. Now they’re searching for different factors such as value for money, location near public transport links (in particular a train line) and the eligibility for grants. There tends to be buyers moving between competing developments in similar locations should a house become available that better suits their needs and budget.”
New apartments in Cork
The aforementioned Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme is one of a number of Government initiatives designed to encourage more building of homes.
In this case, it’s a scheme designed specifically to encourage the building of apartments for owner-occupiers. Over the years, building standards of apartments have been raised to such a level that building apartments to sell them has become an unviable business.
With the assistance of the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme, the idea is to bridge that viability gap which has hitherto been too wide for any new apartments to come on the market in a number of years.
Now, however, new apartments are on sale for the first time in decades in Cork. In Blackrock, the apartment block of 80 apartments known as Blackrock Villas is already selling well off the plans.
“We’ve sold 60 of them at this point,” says Paul Hannon, Director of Sherry Fitzgerald New Homes. The studio apartments are priced at €233,000 and the 2-bedroom apartments were selling for prices in the region of €360,000 to €370,000, with mainly First Time Buyers purchasing.
“They’re the first apartments we’ve sold in Cork in 20 years,” adds Paul of the properties that will be completed in 2026.
