Daft Property - Irish Property News

Average house prices in Northern Ireland fell by almost 8 per cent last year. The average cost of a house was £149,795 (€178,000), according to a University of Ulster (UU) survey. The number of sales also fell. Cold weather affected activity around Christmas although the market showed signs of stabilising towards the end of the year. One of the UU survey authors, Professor Alastair Adair, said: “The second half of 2010 has been a difficult period for the housing market in Northern Ireland, contrasting with the tentative signs of recovery in the first half of the year. “It seems that the prospects for the UK economy, local fears of public sector cuts and possible contagion effects from the Irish economy may have dented confidence in the local market and that the severe weather conditions may have impacted on sales volumes in the final quarter.” A total of 110 estate agents were surveyed about activity late last year for the UU, Bank of Ireland and Housing Executive Quarterly H...

What's a house worth now: does anyone know? With no national house price register available to help homeowners, working out how much your property is really worth can be tricky – if not impossible LIKE MANY neighbourhoods around the country, Charlesland in Greystones, Co Wicklow could be renamed Walter Mittyland, such is the huge disparity in the asking prices of houses in the area. When Keith Slowey and his wife, Genevieve, put their three- bed end-of-terrace on 89 Charlesland Grove on the market in October at an initial asking price of €310,000 (now reduced to €295,000), a three-bed mid-terrace house nearby was asking €345,000 while another three-bed, also mid terrace, in the area was €485,000. There are lots of properties in Charlesland on the market and according to Keith Slowey, “the price range is crazy”. Two-bed houses predominate in the estate and some are asking more than nearby three-beds. The houses are being sold by investors bailing out of the market and owne...

House prices are now at 2003 levels as almost €100,000 has been wiped off the value of an average home. The price of property has plummeted by a massive 31.5pc since the peak in early 2007. Data published by the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index outlined that the pace of property price declines escalated in 2009, with prices tumbling 18.5pc over the year compared to a fall of 9.1pc in 2008. The standard house price in the country is now €213,000 and the figures deteriorated as the year progressed, with an 8.5pc fall in average prices in the last three months of the past year. Niall O'Grady, general manager of business strategy at Permanent TSB, described 2009 as a "horrendous year" for the Irish housing market. "The pessimist will say there's worse to come. The optimist will argue that affordability has improved so much that things will stabilise soon. But the realist will admit we'll have to wait and see," he said. Separate research from Goodbody ha...

THE average price of a house in Ireland is now €70,000 less than at the peak of the property boom, according to new figures. Dublin and commuter belt homeowners have been particularly badly hit by the ongoing downturn in house prices. The latest Permanent tsb/ESRI monthly figures on house sales show the average price of a house nationally in June was just over €240,000. This is down from €311,000 in February 2007 when the market peaked. In Dublin, the average price of a home is now just under €320,000. This is a drop of over 15pc on the same time last year, considerably worse than the 10pc average fall outside of the capital. It is expected that the trend will continue for the immediate future, said a spokesperson for Permanent TSB. "The index today confirms the pattern of recent months. Poor demand and significant oversupply have combined to cancel out the benefits of lower interest rates to mean that prices continue to weaken. This pattern is likely to persist for some time,...

Homes at a discount - but are they still a good buy? 2008 Review: AFFORDABLE HOMES: There are lots of apartments and houses for sale under the Government's Affordable Homes schemes, writes Frances O'Rourke AOIFE MACMAHON had been renting for years when she applied to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCOCO) for an affordable house in November 2005. "The property market was at its peak and my mum urged me to apply. A couple of weeks later I got a letter saying I was number 168 on the list." After that, Aoife - a single 36-year-old media buyer with an income under the €58,000 affordable eligibility threshold - forgot about her application. She was happy to go on renting her apartment near the Luas in Dundrum; she had lived there for over five years but buying "was off the radar - apartments cost from €600,000 up" and anyway she had always dreamed of living near the sea. In January 2007 she got a call from the council. "There was a two-bed unit avai...

€1 million price drop for well located property... DONNYBROOK €2.25m This four-bedroom house on Nutley Lane, which was extensively and expensively refurbished, has seen its price fall by more than €1 million EXACTLY ONE YEAR ago we carried a review of a house at 18 Nutley Lane in Donnybrook that had been bought as an investment with the intention of doing it up and sellling it on at a profit. The owners of the four-bedroom house purchased it in 2006, paid stamp duty at nine per cent, and spent several hundred thousand on renovations. In all, they probably spent in the region of €3.5 million. It went back on the market last November at €3.25 million, to snorts of disbelief from rival agents who were finding it difficult to shift property in the area for a good deal less. The price has been gradually dropping ever since, but the latest discount has landed number 18 at €2.25 million, a full million below its 2007 price. Selling agent Felicity Fox hopes this latest cut might tempt buyers w...

THE average house has lost almost €46,000 of its property-boom value. Prices fell in October for the 20th month in a row. House prices are now down 15pc from their peak of January/February 2007, according to the latest figures from the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index. Over the past year prices are down 10.2pc after average prices nationally showed a fall of 0.8pc in October, a marginally smaller drop than in the previous two months. However, many economists feel that price declines have been more severe, with a number of estate agencies estimating that prices are already 30pc off their peak. And new figures out yesterday from the Central Bank seemed to back this up. They showed that residential mortgage lending is at its lowest level in 22 years. Permanent TSB executive Niall O'Grady yesterday defended the accuracy of the house price index. "The index remains as valid as it was when house prices were rising," he said. However, he admitted that there was a three-month...