Westport House Prices

westie

Can anyone help me with this. I am hoping soon to move to the Westport area but I'm confused about the housing market there. I would want a house say 4/5 miles outside the town and I have been keeping an eye on the internet to track prices for quite a long time. From what the media say prices have dropped dramaticaly over the last 1/2 years but most of the asking prices in this area have not moved in that time and the houses have been on the market during the whole of that period. Is it that estate agents can't get there clients to reduce or are they accepting offers much lower than asking prices.

Samhain

Rather than drops the prices around here seem to have stabilised. Id say if a property is on the market for a few months the vendor may be open to offers. Anything in the Westport area will have an over-inflated price tag anyway. Further afield the prices will be lower. Have you looked at anything around Newport or Castlebar? Its still driving distance but the prices are a bit more reasonable.

westie

Thanks for that, I appreciate that prices in the area have historically been inflated but what I don't get is the fact that houses aren't selling but still asking prices in general are not being reduced. I s it just that if they don't achieve the price they don't sell the house.

nuac

You are looking for a house 4 or 5 miles outside Westport?. Much of that area is along the shores of CLew Bay, either along the Lousburgh Road, where there is high demand due to scenery and access to Westpor Quay, or in the area between Westport and Newport where the sea scape is not so dramatic but closer to Glolf CLub, sailing club etc. Becaue of difficulties in getting planning for new houses in those areas, there is still strong demand for properties coming on the market.

You could go out the Castlebar, Ballinrobe or Leenane Roads, but the scenary is not as good as along the coast, and unless you were near the three pub village of Aughagower, you would be very car dependant.

In Westport Town prices increased rapidly following the Seaside Resort Scheme c 1995 which led to the building of 100's of apartments and houses which had to be kept available for short term letting to tourists for ten years. If they were sold within ten years, a clawback of a generous tax exemption occurred. Many of those houses and apartments are now available as are about 100 new apartments at the Tesco development at Altamount Street. I haven't checked individual prices etc but a cash purchaser would I think be a welcome visitor to any of the local auctioneers.

I have also heard that there are a lot of houses available for sale in Newport.

Fatboydim

If you like and PM me I would give you the number of a reliable auctioneer who I believe would be very straight with you. I moved to Westport six years ago and live close to Aughagower we're exactly four miles out of town and it's perfect really. Six years ago we had three neighbours, now eight new houses have been built. The market here is buoyant enough with many of the new houses selling if realistically priced. Our own house would have been around the 400k 410k mark this time last year but would get 380K now. Originally paid 260K. If I were to put the house on the market I would not expect a quick sale and I think that's kind of how it works here. You wait for the right buyer. But I think that will work in your favour as a buyer.

Hope that info helps.