House sales still booming in Cork

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

After Dublin, Cork had the highest number of property transactions in the country in 2024 with Cork city’s southside recording the third highest volume of residential property transactions among postcodes outside the capital.

The GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report for Q4 2024 found that Dublin had the highest number of property transactions (14,794) in the 12-month period to November 2024, followed by Cork (5,153) and Kildare (2,765). Together the three counties made up almost half of all residential property transactions in the state.

Aside from the 22 Dublin postcodes, there are 117 principal post town codes in Ireland. In these 117 areas, transaction volumes were highest in V94 Limerick (1,457), followed by H91 Galway (1,352), and T12 Cork Southside (1,191).

The T12 area of Cork city includes popular suburbs such as Douglas, Grange, Frankfield and Rochestown. The average price of a property there in 2024 was €418,136. In contrast, the T23 area encompassing Cork city’s northside saw just 493 transactions in the same period with an average property price of €309,533.

The Cork towns that saw the most property transactions during 2024 were the commuter towns of Mallow (518), Carrigaline (387), Midleton (387), Glanmire (326) and Ballincollig (263).

The report found that a first-time buyer purchasing a new dwelling in County Cork would need a household income of €84,725 or €87,464 if buying in Cork city. Existing dwellings are more affordable, requiring a household income of €67,838 in the county or €72,000 in the city.

The report also found that average rent payments are higher than average mortgage payments in Cork city by €403 per month whereas in the rest of the county they cost roughly the same.

GeoDirectory was jointly established by An Post and Tailte Eireann to create and manage a database of addresses for the 2.1 million buildings that receive post in Ireland.

After Dublin, County Cork accounted for the second highest number of new residential addresses added to the database in the twelve months to December 2024, with 3,730 new addresses added, 10.8% of the total figure.

The capital recorded the highest levels of new construction activity in the state with 4,162 buildings under construction by December 2024, representing 18.7% of the national total, followed by Cork with 3,002 buildings (13.5%).