House prices look like levelling off
OCTOBER 1979
Seven cyclists from Killarney set out to Limerick on a sponsored cycle to raise funds for the Irish Wheelchair Association. Pictured is Dr. Kevin MacNamara cutting the tape at the start. From left: Doreen Brosnan, Mary Tracey, Sean Tracey, Sr. Liguori,...
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THE galloping rise in house prices in Kerry looks like levelling off but hardpressed buyers need not expect the current credit squeeze to reduce them in value.
The banks and building society curbs on credit have put a dampener on a booming housing market in recent months, after a year where house prices jumped by an estimated 20 per cent.
But the absence of cash wont mean cheaper houses, and purchasers can expect to pay a minimum of £30,000 for the average three to four-bedroom house.
This was the current house price estimate given by Mr Norman Chard, of the Tralee auctioneering firm, William H. Giles and Co this week.
He added that the more substantial house costs in the region of £50,000.
He said the that there may be a levelling off of house prices but there certainly would not be a reduction. He pointed out that the onlly person likely to sell a housee under the market value was somebody who had to make the sale quickly.
"I cannot see prices being reduced," he said. "The cost of sites and building materials are rising rapidly. An example of this is a digger, which four years ago cost £7,000 and now now costs £21,000."
He estimated that the current price of a half-acre site, in a reasonably attractive area, was in the region of £10,000.
There are varying estimates of how long the credit squeeze will last. One forecast is that it will continue until March 1980.
Killarney auctioneer, Seán Coyne, said that people who had money in a building society for the necessary length of time were getting loans.
"Our clients are educated to this requirement," he said.
