At the beginning of the year, Glenveagh Property, an Irish home building company, had shares increase by over 2%. The shares rose due to an increase in house sales and company revenue in 2019. The company achieved these increases because they had significant sales of homes for first-time buyers, where there still remains a high demand. Glenveagh Property reports the company generated revenues of €284 million, which presents an 240% increase from 2019 to 2020. In addition, the company had a 200% increase in homes built from 2019 to 2020, stating the company built 844 new homes. Finally, the company reports that they have reduced its risk in its 2020 construction targets.
While Glenveagh Property’s positive report for the year of 2019 and hopeful outlook for 2020 are optimistic signs, the housing market may continue to grow with an improvement of the Coronavirus. On Tuesday, 11 February 2020, Zhong Nanshan, the head of China’s National Health Commission team investigating the Coronavirus, stated in an interview that the infectious virus may be over in April of 2020. Nanshan said the disease would reach a peak this month, plateau and, optimistically, be over in April. Soon after this interview, Cairn Homes, another home building company in Ireland, had a revival Tuesday afternoon and finished the day trading at €1.16, which is an increase of 3.5%.
In addition to the promising housing market, the interview reporting a ballpark date for the end of the Coronavirus benefitted other sectors. The travel and leisure sector of the European market increased by 1.9%. Fear of travel because of the rapid outbreak of the Coronavirus harmed this sector. However, due to the optimism of the head researcher of the Coronavirus in China, the rapid decrease in sales of travel and leisure companies declined.
It will be interesting to watch which direction the housing market and other Irish sectors trend if more improvement of the Coronavirus continues. Many political parties have big plans in place to create more social and affordable home so this is a market to watch. Similarly, the world economy is largely based on consumer sentiment so positive news should bear well for mostly all Irish and world markets. Although February is predicted to be the worst month of the disease, the level of hope Zhong Nanshan has, without any major changes in opinion, should improve the markets hit hardest by the virus.
