Residential Property Price Index April 2019

Volume and Value of Purchases and Sales

The non-household sector comprises private companies, charitable organisations and state institutions. The non-household sector is a significant actor in the Irish residential property market, both in terms of purchases and sales. This chapter provides additional detail on non-household sector dwelling transactions for the years 2010 to 2018. This information is updated annually.

In 2018 the total residential property market comprised of 53,644 dwelling purchases with a value of €15.3 billion.  Of these, the non-household sector made up 9,145 purchases with a total value of €2.4 billion. Apart from 2016, the volume of non-household purchases has increased every year since 2011, when just 760 non-household purchases were made. The value of non-household purchases has increased consistently from 2010, when the non-household sector spent just €171.9 million on dwellings.

In contrast, in 2018 the non-household sector sold 16,692 dwellings on the market. These had a total value of €4.9 billion. The low point for both the volume and value of non-household sales was 2011 (3,153 and €662.4 million respectively).

From 2010 to 2018, in terms of both the volume and value, non-household dwelling sales exceeded non-household purchases (see Figure 3.1).

Within the non-household sector, entities belonging to NACE sections O,P,Q: Public/Education/Health purchased dwellings in the residential market with a value of €707.6 million in 2018*. This is more than in any other NACE section according to transactions filed with the Revenue Commissioners. Purchases of dwellings by entities in the NACE section K: Finance (i.e. banks, holding companies, trusts, funds and similar financial entities) were the second largest, with a value of €650.3 million (See Figure 3.2).

*It should be noted that the aggregate of NACE sections O,P,Q is a broad grouping. It includes transactions involving state or semi-state agencies, such as those made by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies. However, it also covers all other transactions of residential properties made by public institutions as well as purchases and sales made by private companies within the education and health sectors.

In terms of the value of non-household sales, entities in the NACE section F: Construction were the most active in 2018, selling residential properties with a value of €2.4 billion. The construction sector had the highest value of sales in all years from 2010 to 2018. In 2018 the second largest NACE section in terms of sales of dwellings was section K: Financial and Insurance, with a value of €1.5 billion.

In 2018 Irish registered companies and institutions accounted for €2.1 billion (87.6%) of the €2.4 billion spent on dwellings by the non-household sector. €9.9 million was spent on dwellings by companies with a Northern Ireland address, €17.9 million by companies with a Great Britain address and €151.0 million by companies with an address in a British Crown Dependency. A total of €118.0 million was spent by companies with addresses in other countries and territories (see Figure 3.3).

In 2018, Irish registered companies and institutions accounted for €4.8 billion (98.4%) of the value of all dwellings sold by the non-household sector. Europe (excluding Ireland, the United Kingdom and British Crown Dependencies) accounted for just €4.3 million (0.1%) and North America accounted for €9.9 million (0.2%) of dwelling sales.

The Household and Non-Household sectors of the residential property market interact and overlap to a significant degree. Each dwelling transaction involves two parties, the buyer and the seller. A household may sell to another household or to the Non-Household Sector (represented by flows A and B respectively in figure 4 below). Conversely, a non-household company or institution may sell to the Household Sector or to another company or institution (flows C and D). Net inter-sectoral flows can be established to show the overall direction of the flow of dwellings (in volume or value terms). For example, the net value flow (C-B) represents the overall transfer of money from the Household to the Non-Household sector in the residential property market.

Figure 3.4: Household and Non-Household residential property flows

In 2018 the non-household sector sold dwellings valued €3.6 billion to the household sector, whereas it sold just €1.3 billion within its own sector. In contrast, in 2018 households sold predominately to other households, with the intra-household market accounting for €9.3 billion of dwelling sales and sales to the non-household sector accounting for just €1.1 billion. On balance, this represented a net flow of €2.5 billion to the non-household sector. In each year represented a net flow of money was directed to the non-household sector, with the net flow being at its lowest in 2012 at just €466.8 million.

The StatBank Tables are available here