THE ESTATE AGENTS behind the now-infamous estate in north Dublin that saw a handful of buyers camp out to buy homes believe that we’re not seeing “a return to the queue”.

All two-bed houses at the Miller’s Glen estate in Swords are now reserved or sold, with one four-bed and seven three-bed remaining.

A total of 45 are now reserved, and a spokeswoman for Sherry Fitzgerald said that are expected to sell the remainder in the coming week.

“We weren’t expecting them to sell-out straight away,” she told TheJournal.ie. She described the weekend as “very very busy” as it was the first new housing development in north Dublin in some time.

She stressed that only a tiny minority of people were queuing for homes, all for their own reasons, and that it is likely to have been an isolated case.

I don’t think it’s going to be return to the queue.

“There was unbelievable media interest in a few people queuing outside a development, but it’s not something we’re encouraging.

We didn’t feel there was ever a need for anyone to queue, there were plenty of homes to go around.

Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Independent, the head of the State’s advisory body on housing said he expects the recent surge in house prices to slow down.

Conor Skehan wrote:

Property prices are always increasing, as they always do after a crash.

“But this increase has a natural braking mechanism that is already evident — low house prices caused many people to defer selling or moving but as prices increase the number of sales are increasing too.”

The most recent figures from the CSO show the cost of buying a home in Dublin is almost 25% higher than this time last year, prompting fears of a return to the property bubble.

A major shortage of supply in urban areas is being blamed.

Analysts have previously described the market as “frothy”, warning of a return to a property bubble.

“A lack of supply of houses is pushing up prices, particularly in the Dublin area, something which the Fine Gael/Labour government hopes to address,” Alan McQuaid, Merrion Capital’s chief economist, said.

Clearly, there is an element of housing froth at the moment which is pricing many first time buyers out of the market.

Read: Government housing adviser: This is not a crisis, prices have a “natural braking mechanism” >

More: Looks like deciding to queue for four days for a Dublin semi-d paid off… >

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