We decided to start with September 2021 because that was also the month when inflation hit a 10-year high driven by a rise in the cost of transport, housing, restaurants and hotels.
There are more than 400,000 mortgage borrowers on fixed rates, of which more than six in 10 are fixed for less than three years. Many of this will be exiting these fixed rates in the near future and are likely to see the interest rates increase by more than 2 per cent when they do.While the cost of owning a home has climbed dramatically for many people over the last two years, the cost of renting one has also climbed significantly.
That is all by way of saying the Irish housing market can always be counted on to do crazy things and so it has done over the last two years. While price increases have eased significantly over recent months – particularly in Dublin – a property that was priced at €350,000 in September 2021 is most likely priced at about €400,000 today.More than two million people in Ireland have private health insurance and in the early phase of the cost-of-living crisis they were spared any price hikes.
In the autumn of 2021 when we were starting to realise the impact the cost-of-living crisis was likely to have, much of the focus was on. The gloomiest of predictions suggested Irish households might be worse off by about €700 each year as a result of higher gas and electricity bills. But while any price cut is welcome, it does not mean things are returning to normal. If a household was spending €2,000 a year on household energy in all its forms in 2020 and €4,000 in 2022 and 2023, a 20 per cent discount amounting to €800 will still leave them worse off by €1,200 when compared with just three years ago.