A midlands auctioneer says that's a result of an absence of downsizing options here.
More than two thirds of people here live in homes that are too big for their needs.
That's according to new research from the ESRI, which found housing units were bigger with fewer people living in them than other European countries.
But, Branch Manager at Sherry Fitzgerald Davitt and Davitt in Kinnegad, Micheal Farrelly, says there's a lack of downsizing options available here.
He says first-time buyers and people coming in from the countryside tend to snap up the apartments:
John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Economics Professor at Trinity College Dublin, says selling up is a tricky process here:
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