Hard to trump US interest in Irish residential property

In the days after the US election, which saw a Donald Trump victory, Savills Ireland reported a surge in interest in Irish property from US visitors to our website, Savills.ie. We saw a 342% spike in searches from the US compared to the week before the election.

The top three locations for US interest in Savills.ie came from New York, Massachusetts and California which are all, interestingly, traditionally democratic voting states. While this data is encouraging, it is too early to tell if this interest level translates into on the ground sales, however the early signs are very positive.

We have in recent weeks engaged with a number of US-based buyers actively seeking on and off market waterfront property within a close proximity of an airport. Areas such as Kinsale, West Cork and Kerry remain high on the list of preferred locations.

Post Brexit and the covid 19 pandemic we saw a strong increase in international buyers in Ireland. The US-based buyers’ interest was mostly in coastal, waterfront and country estate properties, a trend that continues today.

International interest in Ireland’s residential market from other countries such as the UK, Canada, Dubai, mainland Europe and Australia remains strong, particularly from the UK. Mostly expats, these buyers are traditionally a younger profile looking to move to Ireland permanently. In my experience, the US based buyer is of an older demographic and in most cases looking to purchase an additional home generally in a higher price bracket. These buyers are currently the most active in the Irish Market with plans to visit in 2025.

In our experience, most international buyers of prime property in the last two years had concerns about climate change impacting their home country, and purchasing a property in Ireland offered them an alternative option, firstly as a holiday home but some have intentions to retire here fulltime. Based on recent data and early on the ground interactions, the recent US election may become another reason for US based buyers to purchase a home in Ireland in 2025. For most, this will be a holiday home but for some it will be a full-time relocation and principal private residence purchase.

As objectively speaking as it is possible, it’s not hard to see why Ireland has such a strong appeal to international buyers, with attributes such as our unique geographical positioning to the US, the UK and mainland Europe, our easy access to five International Airports, English speaking, our heritage rich period properties often in waterfront locations, easily accessed coastline and scenic countryside, not to mention our cuisine, people and culture. Maybe not so objective after all!

In Cork we will see over 60 individual residential sales in the €1m plus price category in 2024, a slight increase on the previous year. It’s worth noting that pre pandemic levels of €1m plus sales in Cork were generally under 30 individual residential sales per annum. This changed dramatically in 2022 to just under 60 sales per annum. This year in Cork, about a third of the individual €1m plus residential sales took place in Kinsale or West Cork, emphasising the allure of coastal, waterfront or prime country homes to the market.

While supply of such ‘wish list’ properties remains an issue, it is evident that demand is only getting stronger.

It is likely American politics and prime Irish residential property will be closely linked in 2025.

Michael O’Donovan is residential director in Savills, Cork