Four out of every ten new homes sold last year across the country changed hands as part of a transaction where multiple units were sold together, new research has claimed.
In total there were 7,306 new units sold as part of such “block sales” the analysis by estate agents DNG has found.
Block sale buyers are typically non-household organisations, like Approved Housing Bodies, investment funds and other financial institutions, local authorities and charities.
It means that last year just 58% of all new homes, representing 9,201 units, were sold to individual private buyers.
In Dublin, the percentage of new homes sold as part of block sales to the non-household sector was even higher at 61% last year.
In total 3,528 out of 5,752 new homes sales in the capital changed hands this way and as a result, only 2,116 new homes sales were to individual buyers in the Dublin market.
In Cork almost one in four of all new homes sales were part of block sales in 2023, equating to 457 units.
Galway saw 27% of all new housing sold as part of block sales, while in Limerick the figure was 55%.
Outside the capital, Kildare registered the highest volume of new homes sales in 2023, with almost three quarters of these units sold to private individual buyers.
The research also claimed that the number of transactions involving new homes that are being recorded on the Property Price Register (PPR) is considerably lower than it should be.
DNG estimated that as much as 30% of the new homes sold every year are not being properly registered on the PPR.
This because in many instances, block sales in a particular development are being registered on the PPR as just one transaction.
The New Homes Transactional Analysis Report cites last year as an example, when it says there were 5,163 new homes sold that were part of block sales which were not captured by the PPR.
This was equivalent to 30% of all the new homes sold in 2023, it said.
11,876 new units were officially recorded on the PPR as having been sold during the 12 months, DNG says.
But when those that were not registered are added, it brings the total to 17,039.
