THE NATIONAL average house price fell by almost 11 per cent to €312,500 in the last year, according to a new survey. In the past three months, asking prices have fallen by 3.8 per cent across the country, as sellers remain slow to react to the new economic realities.
The latest Daft.ie house price report shows that the slowing property market has hit counties Clare and Cork the most, with asking prices falling 7.8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively in the third quarter, while in Roscommon, Tipperary and Leitrim, prices fell by more than 6 per cent. South Dublin county was the only region out of the 35 covered across the country to report an increase in asking prices, with the average house price increasing by 1.2 per cent to €600,874.
Commenting on the report, Moore McDowell, a lecturer in economics at UCD, said the falling prices are associated with a rising stock of houses for sale and a concurrent collapse in the number of houses being sold. It is a symptom of a “structural malaise”, he said, whereby sellers are not adjusting their asking prices sufficiently to clear the market.
Elsewhere in Dublin, prices fell the most in the west, with a 5.7 per cent price drop recorded over the past three months, followed by north Dublin city, where asking prices declined by 5 per cent, down to an average price of €405,673. Overall, just over a quarter of the regions experienced a fall of 3-4 per cent, with a further 17 regions within 2 per cent of that range.
The survey is based on an analysis of the asking prices of properties posted for sale on Daft.ie up to October 1st. The average number of properties posted on the site is just over 40,000.
Based on the 2006 census figures of Ireland’s housing stock, the survey also estimates that almost €18 billion was wiped off the value of Ireland’s property market in the past three months, with the total value of the residential property market now an estimated €456 billion, compared to just over €500 billion for the same period last year.
