This article is from page 49 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 49 JPG
THE traditional selling period for holiday homes is fast approaching and as yet, agents specialising in this market are unsure whether or not the downturn in the property market will spread its tentacles to the coastal aoe
Aine Hussey of Sherry FitzGerald Hussey Madden, Ennistymon, is relatively upbeat about the prospects
for 2008.
“After a disappointing last quarter in 2007, 2008 kicked off with an un- expected but most welcome strong start, with a high volume of sales for the first quarter of our financial year.
This strong start may have been due to people holding off until the stamp duty issue was resolved in the Budget.
She added, “most of our sales early this year have been to people moving
permanently to the north and west Clare area. From Easter onwards is traditionally the start of the holiday home sales and we have found that the rate of enquiries has increased ten fold since St Patrick’s weekend, particularly for the popular costal villages of Lahinch, Doolin, Liscan- nor and Spanish Point with some strong offers already on the table. “The buyer profile of recent years doesn’t seem to be changing, with
the majority of our enquiries gen- erated by prospective buyers from Limerick, Dublin and the Midlands. However, despite the weakening sterling, we have increased our UK client base both for permanent and holiday homes”.
Holiday home purchasers in 2007 were waiting for adjustments in the markets including stamp duty before moving on second homes, now that the criteria’s have been met we see
strong demand for the 2008 season.
Asked which properties are cur- rently drawing attention, Aine said, “The School Road development of 77 homes continue to sell from plans and as usual there is strong demand for properties with sea views”.
All told, Aine is feeling confident and anticipates that the Clare coastal market will remain resilient in 2008.
“We are looking forward to a busy summer season.’