Public bodies buying up homes has caused the price to rise [Video]

The number of homes bought by public bodies soared by 68% last year, leaving fewer properties on the market for private buyers.

And more than half of the homes being snapped up now by investors and the public are new builds, new figures from the CSO show.

In total, non-owner occupiers bought more than 12,200 properties last year worth €4.2bn, although it was a drop of almost 10% on the 13,522 sales in 2022.

The new CSO report released yesterday says: “Since 2021, there has been a steady increase in the volume and value of purchases of residential properties made by non-household entities.”

The number of homes bought by local authorities and approved housing bodies soared from 1,239 in 2022 to 2,082 last year and it is pushing up house prices.

Prices are currently rising at more than 8% a year but four years ago before the buying surge they were virtually …