Irish house price Q4 fall largest in 2010 - website

Published 05th Jan 2011

Asking prices for Irish homes fell by 4.8 percent in the final quarter of 2010, the largest quarter-on-quarter drop recorded last year, property website Daft.ie said on Wednesday.

The latest drop meant prices in December were down 14 percent from a year earlier and on average 40 percent below their 2007 peak in the wake of the bursting of Ireland's property bubble.

The Irish government has taken over the majority of the country's banking sector, which was crippled as years of reckless property lending during the "Celtic Tiger" boom eventually turned to bust. The country and its banks were forced to agree to an 85 billion euro IMF/EU bailout late last year.

Daft, which advertises nine out of every 10 properties for sale in Ireland, said the market had not yet reached the bottom with available credit tight and cash-strapped, would-be buyers braced for tax and interest rate hikes.

"On the supply side, the number of properties for sale remains very high, at close to 60,000, while on the demand side, a range of factors continue to weigh on prospective buyers," Ronan Lyons, chief economist at Daft, said in a statement.

With the survey showing prices in parts of Dublin down 50 percent from peak levels, and the amount being asked in some rural areas just 30 percent lower, Lyons said there were now distinct markets throughout the country, with parts of Dublin far closer to completing their adjustment.

Economists surveyed by Reuters last month forecast that prices for the country as a whole would fall by a further 5 percent in 2011, before recovering to rise by 2 percent in 2012.

A separate survey carried out by rival property website MyHome.ie, put the fourth quarter fall at 3.2 percent to bring the reverse for the year to 13.1 percent.

Source: ' Reuters '

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