Positive outlook for local property market in 2025
Residential and land sales are set to remain strong in Co Cavan in 2025 after a “good year” in both, according to local auctioneers Eamonn Gaffney and Declan Woods. Supply and demand will be the key factors going into the New Year and with “good value” on three and four bed semis - which can still be purchased in Cavan Town for less than the building cost - the county remains an attractive place in which to live and work.
Strong agri sales
In east Cavan, Eamonn Gaffney says that supply and demand has been “key” to the prices being achieved whether that’s residential, commercial properties or land.
“On the land end of it, 2024 was a strong year for agricultural land; and it’s looking like 2025 is going to be a strong year again,” he told The Anglo-Celt this week.
“2025 will be fuelled by milk and beef prices as well as a positive outlook in the sheep and pig sectors. From the farming end of things, it seems there will be an upward trend in 2025. There is still investment by companies in agricultural land and going forward that will be a driver on price per acre.”
Policy & climate targets
Mr Gaffney says that climate targets are being felt in the rental/leasing land market, particularly in the dairy sector where some farmers need extra maps etc, to either keep or increase their cow numbers. “That is probably helping the rental/leasing market,” he said before adding that beef and sheep men are also strong contenders because a lot of them are working [outside the farm] and that too is helping the market.
“When the beef price is good farmers have more confidence in maybe keeping a few extra cows and keeping at what they are at rather than reducing numbers when there’s negativity in the trade. Positivity in all sectors helps farmers move along on prices as well.”
Interest rates
The local auctioneer says that interest rates can affect property prices.
“If you go back to supply and demand, that’s what’s key. However, if interest rates do keep increasing, it will have an impact,” he added. “People will become a little bit more cautious but, at the end of the day, if a couple want a house or there comes a piece of land for sale beside you or a commercial property for sale that’s suitable, prices will be affected if interest rates go up.”
Vacancy/dereliction
Grants for vacant houses are still driving sales in some areas, according to Mr Gaffney.
“It’s lovely to see older houses in rural Ireland being brought back into the market because of the grant schemes that are now available. These are encouraging people to do up an older house and bring it back to life.”
Business in 2024
2024 was a good year for business, the auctioneer found.
“I had a very good year in 2024; we sold a lot of farms from Drum in Co Monaghan to Ardagh in Co Longford. In fact I’m just after sale agreeing the last farm for 2024 and that marks a 100% clearance in all the farms we took in this year.”
Mr Gaffney also pointed to prices and the strength in the market this year. “We had strong prices as well - from as high as €15,500 per acre in Cavan and €13,500 per acre on that farm in Drum; to €12,500 per acre in Longford. We sold a farm to a company in England and another one to an individual who resides in the US. The farm that was sold in Ardagh was bought by an individual in the Cayman Islands. So, all of this shows, there is overseas interest in the Irish land market.”
Cavan Town and Virgina
Declan Woods of Sherry FitzGerald says the residential market is the strongest sector going into 2025 and the lack of supply continues to be the key factor in rising prices.
“The market has continued to change and evolve and, for example in the last 12 to 24 months, the local market has become popular with the Asian community and this is probably down to the fact that we have a lot of employment in Cavan General Hospital as well as a number of nursing homes in the area,” he outlined.
“That has increased competition for both stock and price within Cavan Town. We would feel ourselves, here, that there has been a seven per cent year-on-year increase from 2023 into 2024 across the board. Looking to next year, where we have actually tried to be a little conservative on, from December 2024 to December 2025, I would expect that we could be looking at as much as an eight per cent increase.”
Contributing factors
Mr Woods says that the lack of stock and a reduction in interest rates, which makes affordability a little bit easier for some parties, are all factors in what will present next year.
“Overall, and while everyone feels that things are gone a bit dear, Cavan is providing decent value for money,” said Mr Woods.
He pointed out that there is still the option to buy good-quality, three-bedroom, semi-detached houses in the region of €225K to €250K; two-bedroom apartments for somewhere in the region of €150K to €160K; and four-bed, semi-detached houses for around €240K to €260K.
“So, in the overall scheme of things, that is good value for money. We are still selling second hand properties for less than it costs to build or insure them and that too is a factor,” explained Mr Woods.
While Virginia was considered the “poster boy” for property in County Cavan in recernt years, the auctioneer points out that the area saw the lowest growth over the past year with that trend expected to continue in 2025.
The county town however is proving popular.
“Cavan Town has proved to be very strong particularly in the last year and we would expect that to continue over the next 12 months as well. Then it is the county town, there’s good services, good choice of schools, employment all of which make it an attractive place in which to live. It stands alone whereas Virginia would be considered a more commuter-based area. So, all of this has changed things a little from both a demand and pricing perspective,” detailed Mr Woods.
Vacant/derelict properties
Mr Woods says the grants offered for derelict properties have proven to be a “double-edged sword” as far as prices are concerned but says other factors are in play.
“The restrictions on planning permission and the lack of ability to get planning permission now means that, if someone wants to get that property in the country, they really have to secure an old derelict property or something like that,” he explained.
“And, while it doesn’t necessarily guarantee planning, it does get them a good step of the way towards qualifying for planning permission. Now, those properties probably would have been popular anyway but these new grants have increased the price on those types of properties. Now, you are looking at derelict properties where once you might not have been able to retain any or certainly very little of it fetching as much as €70K to €90K depending on where it’s positioned and that is more than people would have been paying for a site.”
Interest rates
“We have had four decreases this year and there’s still a long way to go but I suppose the key point is that, probably for an entire generation, interest rates arrived at an acceptable record low that will never be repeated,” said Mr Woods.
“The ECB then increased rates in an effort to combat inflation, which did stem that tide and now it’s endeavouring to reduce them. It seems that growth rates across the EU, particularly in Germany which is regarded as the driver for the European economy, have slowed down dramatically so interest rates are being reduced to try and assist that.
“The advantages to that is it will cost less to service a mortgage even though these decreases are very incremental and is reducing the loan by €13 on every €100K borrowed. But, if you take four of those, that’s €52 per €100K being dropped back. From a commercial perspective, it means money on deposit is earning less and that will push funds and individuals with high net worth to start looking at other opportunities to get earnings on their funds, and they tend to look at purchasing commercial properties on that basis.”
Residential Land Zone Tax
This tax is being introduced on February 1, 2025. But will it impact?
“This is something that has been kicked around for some time; there was quite a lot of indecision on it from a government perspective on the basis that, while there were people who had land in zoned areas, they were actually just farming it - they were simply second and third generation farmers - and a degree of housekeeping was required to tidy all of that up so that people weren’t penalised,” explained Mr Woods.
“But where other land is currently in a zoned area and it isn’t being utilised or disposed of, it will be subject to this tax. It will encourage people to try to dispose of the land or develop it but the difficulty in our region is that every year we are getting closer to a point where there is a degree of affordability in building.
“People are still buying product for less than it costs to build it and, on that basis, that reduces the opportunity for margin and nobody will develop or build housing unless there is an opportunity to get some degree of profit on it. And, that is just hard economic facts. There are areas of land that are zoned for sale at the moment in our area but there aren’t buyers for them.”
In general, Mr Woods is optimistic for the year ahead.
“Cavan is a great town and there are plenty of opportunities for people here. A lot of exciting things are happening and great credit goes to Cavan County Council which is taking the lead on the Abbeylands development. The recent announcement of funding for the regional sports hub is fantastic and really the county is a great place in which to live and work.”