New chapter for Kildare property firm

A NEW space for Appleton Property in Kilcullen is the third move in 13 years for Austin Egan's business, all on the same 100-metre stretch of the town's Main Street.

This time it's to the premises previously owned by the late Hugh Peacocke and his son Ger, which Austin purchased some time ago.

The former shoemaker's shop is now updated in a manner respectful of Kilcullen's heritage streetscape.

Inside, there's a comfortable public area, a conference room, and Austin's office looking out onto a low-key garden.

The renovation brought light flowing right through the building, for the benefit of those working there — Austin himself, his daughter and student Siún, and Laura White who has been office manager for the last eight years.

It's a pleasant and productive space to work in what has become a complex business.

Irish people have always had an appetite for home ownership, and that hasn't gone away, Austin says. But it's more difficult. "It has become much more challenging. Construction costs have gone up exponentially, which in turn has driven up the price of new houses. And secondhand ones have followed. We also have a larger population, so there's a supply and demand issue now that wasn't there in 2013."

The rental side has been going through substantial, and disruptive changes.

The squeeze on renters is painfully evident to many simply seeking a place to live, and also to others who are in that space while trying to achieve a home of their own.

It's exacerbated by both rising rental prices and smaller landlords exiting the business.

They're leaving in part due to increasing complexity from changes in legislation, bringing a lot more rules to navigate. "Then you have heavy taxation. The sector is getting less attractive, and that’s not good, because we need to have a balanced rental market for young people.” A similar balance is needed at the older homeowner end, with many living in family homes too large for them once their children have left.

“The most common request that we can't immediately satisfy is people who want to move from a larger property into a smaller one that's appropriate for their needs. Those properties aren't available. If there was a substantial stock of two-bedroom houses, then the cycle would work. There'd be a proper cycle, a property ladder on which you can go up and down.” All developed European countries have similar challenges, he notes.

"They're all trying to meet them differently, but I don't know if any are doing it any better than us at the moment.” Government initiatives to help bridge the affordability gap for first-time buyers, such as Help-to-Buy and the shared equity First Home scheme, are “quite effective” in the new homes sector, he says, but they're not available in the second-hand market, which would help.

Tweaks could also still be made in mortgage rules and green incentive discounts.

"Various schemes have helped to increase people's capacity to borrow, and the government has the power to improve those programmes."

While Austin believes that property prices won't be coming down in any foreseeable future, the rate of increase is likely to slow.

"But that's different from house prices coming down — they're still going to grow."

The village character which Kilcullen has retained is an asset which attracts prospective buyers, who regard it as a safe town and a nice place to live.

"I meet a lot of people who come here to consider buying houses, and they may not buy a particular house from me at the time. But they may well be sold on Kilcullen, and I could sell them a house next month.

“I don't see the town exceeding 5,000 in population, and that extra thousand isn't going to change the character of Kilcullen. But we need housing for the next generation, and how that is managed is a key thing."

In the 16 years, Austin has been in business for himself, he has seen estate agency technology move fast and far, particularly with the internet and the arrival of Daft and MyHome.

Now there's another upsurge in technology with AI tools, but the link back to the individual estate agent is still very important.

"We learned during Covid that putting this business totally virtual just does not work. At the end of the day, people want to physically turn up. For us, we're in a village mindset, with a very person-based service, and we have to integrate the technology into that without losing the personal side."

Well, there's nowhere more personal than Main Street in Kilcullen.