Irish house prices continue to fall - The Irish Times

Asking prices for houses continued to fall in the third quarter of the year, according to new reports by rival property websites.

MyHome.ie, which is owned by The Irish Times, said that house prices fell nationally by 3.2 per cent between June and September, while Daft.ie said that prices declined by 3.5 per cent.

Prices in Dublin have fallen 42 per cent from their peak in 2006, according to MyHome.ie, while Daft.ie puts the figure at 48 per cent.

Nationally MyHome.ie says house prices have declined by 42 per cent, while Daft.ie says that the figure ranges from 40 per cent to 50 per cent.

The average price for a house nationally stood at €241,000 at the end of September compared with €249,000 three months earlier, according to MyHome.ie.

In Dublin, the average price of a house had fallen to €275,000 in September from €286,000 three months earlier, the website said.

Over the year, asking prices for houses fell 13.8 per cent nationally and 15.2 per cent in Dublin, according to MyHome.ie’s survey.

House prices in Cork fell the most over the three months, dropping by 5.9 per cent, while prices in Galway fell by 3 per cent.

“Irish consumers remain cautious due to international and domestic concerns,” said Annette Hughes, director of DKM Economic Consultants, author of the report released by MyHome.ie.

“On the one hand, they are worried about the euro financial crisis and its impact on economic and employment growth prospects, while on the other, they are concerned about household finances as well as continuing difficulties securing mortgage finance.”

Daft.ie said the average asking price for a house was just under €195,000 compared with €366,000 at the peak of the market, which it said was in 2007. Asking prices fell by an average of 4.5 per cent over the three months with prices 55 per cent below peak in some parts of the city.

Prices dropped by up to 5 per cent in Cork and Waterford, while there were some of the smallest falls in the third quarter were recorded in Limerick city.

Houses in Galway rose in price, increasing by just over 1 per cent during the summer, but were still down 18 per cent over the previous 12 months, Daft.ie said. “Conditions in the property market remain weak,” said Ronan Lyons, economist at Daft.

The market had to deal with over-construction and a correction in the relationship between house prices and rents, but now had to cope with a lack of credit, he said.

via irishtimes.com

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