Buy two semi-ds in Longford for the price of one in Kildare

IN KILDARE, the average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in the final quarter of 2025 was €409,000, up 7.7 per cent on a year ago, whereas the national average list price rose by an average of 5.5 per cent during the same period.

This makes Kildare the second most expensive county outside of Dublin for such a property, only behind Louth (€471,000), but ahead of neighbours Wicklow (€329k) and Meath (€379k).

Bizarrely, you could afford two three-bed semi-Ds in Longford (€203k) with the price of one in Kildare – and have some change left.

Nationally, the average price of a three-bed semi-detached home in the final quarter of the year was just over €423,000, and listed prices are now, on average, 41 per cent above their pre-covid levels and just 10 per cent below their Celtic Tiger peak.

Important differences remain across regions, with the lowest inflation again seen in Dublin, where prices were up just 3.1% year-on-year, meanwhile in Connacht-Ulster prices rose by 11.6% during 2025.

As has consistently been the case for over a decade, the increases in prices around the country stem from a lack of supply.

On 1 December there were just 11,551 second-hand homes for sale nationwide, and while this is up nominally 7 per cent on the same date a year previously, availability is less than half the 2015-2019 average of 26,000.

Shortages in availability are much more acute outside Dublin (63 per cent below the late 2010s) than in the capital (16 per cent below).

“Despite the modest decline in the speed of the increases, the market remains very tight,” said Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dr Ronan Lyons.

“As our market heat measure shows, the gap between the initial list price and the ultimate transaction price is close to a record high, at over six per cent.

“The volume of second-hand homes put up for sale over the course of the year was just over 53,000 – this down compared to peak in early 2023 of 63,000, before the interest rate shock kicked in, and it’s also down about 10 per cent compared to the pre-covid level.

“A fall-off in supply of about 10 per cent is one thing, but trends in availability on the market – which reflects both supply and demand – are worse.

“There were only 11,500 second-hand homes available to buy on December 1."