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Queues outside the viewing in Leixlip, Co Kildare this morning. Andrew Walsh/The Journal
Kildare
'They were gone in minutes': Dozens of first-time buyers miss out as new Kildare homes snapped up
More than a hundred people had gathered at the new houses by 8am this morning, over two hours ahead of the official viewing.
25 NEWLY-BUILT homes at a housing estate in Kildare were sold within minutes of a viewing launch this morning, as a number of buyers who had slept overnight in their cars earlier this week secured many of the properties.
The properties on offer consisted of two- and three-bed homes in Harpur Lane, a housing estate in Leixlip, Co Kildare which first opened in 2022.
The two-bed terraces were priced at €460,000, while the three-bed homes ranged from €495,000 to €535,000.
A booking deposit of €5,000 was required to secure a home, with an additional €25,000 due upon the signing of the contracts.
These conditions, standard for many new builds, did little to deter the crowd, and all 25 of the new homes were “gone in minutes”, a number of hopeful buyers told The Journal.
Despite the official viewing time being set for 10:30am, eager buyers, many of whom were young couples and families, began showing up much earlier this week. Several had camped out in their cars overnight on Wednesday in order to secure a spot.
The queue system, where names were taken in order of arrival, granted those who had waited the longest priority viewing.
By 7am this morning, a large crowd had gathered outside the estate, ready for their chance to view the properties and make an offer.
One buyer told The Journal that over 100 names were on the list by 7:30am.
Dozens more hopefuls continued to turn up until just after midday, unaware that the properties had already been sold.
‘Dejecting and disappointing’
One young couple who arrived at the viewing in the early hours of this morning were left dejected after being told that there were 78 others ahead of them in the queue.
Sean and Tatiana, who currently rent in Co Kildare, had secured a mortgage this week, and were optimistic when they had arrived to the viewing.
“We thought, okay, this, this might be our shot, so we showed up this morning only to be told by the workers at the front that we were 79th on the list,” Sean said.
The couple have been married for six years, and had recently started attending house viewings.
“We were naive thinking that we would have a chance today, people were ahead of us on the list because they had been waiting here since Tuesday,” Tatiana said.
“We phoned up the agents because we had heard about the people sleeping in their cars, and we asked if we would have a chance.
“They told us that if we showed up maybe an hour or two before on the day, we should be fine. Total lies.”
Another young couple, Elaine and Matthew, told The Journal that they had “high hopes” of securing one of the new houses until they heard about other buyers sleeping in their cars near the properties this week.
“Coming in this morning, we knew it wasn’t gonna be great,” Elaine said.
“We viewed the house, it was lovely, but now we see the queue to get into the sales office, and we’ve heard that they have all been sold already. It’s a bit dejecting and disappointing.”
‘We were so lucky’
One man, Yogesh, who had slept in his car on Wednesday night in hopes of buying a home for his wife and son, was one of the first through the door of the sales office this morning.
He managed to secure one of the three-bed homes at around 7am.
“We had little hope that we would actually be successful in getting a home here,” Yogesh said.
“When we first came here, we said that we would take anything, but we were so lucky to get the house that we wanted.”
Yogesh expressed some relief that his family “finally have a good home”, but expressed his sympathy with those who had missed out on the houses.
“Leixlip is such a lovely area, we completely understand why so many were fighting for this house.
“It shouldn’t have taken people sleeping in their cars to get houses, but that is the situation in a lot of areas like this.”
‘Failed housing policy’
Social Democrat TD Aidan Farrelly said it was “utterly shameful” that people, including Yogesh, had felt the need to sleep in their cars overnight to have any chance of buying a new home.
“This is the level of desperation that people feel when trying to buy a home in Ireland,” Farrelly said in a statement.
“It is a damning indictment of failed housing policy by successive governments, which has resulted in a chronic undersupply of homes.
“These are the very real consequences of the last government not coming even close to meeting their own exaggerated housing targets.”
According to the Central Statistics Office, a total of 30,330 homes were built in 2024, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023.
The government has been widely condemned for the decrease, as former Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Taoiseach Simon Harris had promised voters that 40,000 homes would be completed last year.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the 40,000 figure was “pure fiction” and a “load of bull”, stating that it was a “trick designed to mislead the public”.
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