House prices continue to fall as financial crisis shows no sign of easing

7th October 2008, Asking prices continue on a downward trend with an average fall of 3.8% across the country in the past 3 months, according to the latest report published by the property website Daft.ie. The national average house price now stands at €312,500, 10.7% lower than the same time last year.

Clare and Cork county were the worst affected counties with drops of 7.8% and 7% respectively, while in Roscommon, Tipperary and Leitrim prices fell by over 6%. According to Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft.ie, "The continuing fall in property prices is closely related to the ongoing financial difficulties in the global economy. Firstly, the amount available to borrowers has fallen as banks find it more difficult to access capital themselves. Secondly, talk of financial crises and a long-term economic downturn is affecting the confidence of prospective buyers."

Lyons continued, "The drop in asking prices affects the overall value of Ireland's housing stock. Taking the 2006 Census figures of Ireland's housing stock, the latest fall in asking prices would suggest that almost €18bn has been wiped off the value of Ireland's property market in the past three months." The total value of the residential property market is now an estimated €456bn, compared to just over €500bn for the same period last year.

The latest Daft.ie figures point to a continued slide in prices overall. Commenting on the report, Moore McDowell, lecturer in Economics at UCD, said "Sellers are not adjusting their asking prices sufficiently to clear the market. The slow adjustment of expectations to reality is illustrated by the gap that has now emerged between asking prices for houses just put on the market and those for houses that have been on the market for a quarter or more."

The full report, containing an overview of regional trends and commentary by Moore McDowell, lecturer in Economics at UCD, is available online at www.daft.ie/report.

For further information please contact:
Naoise McNally (01 421 8700), Daft.ie - media@daft.ie

Notes to the Editor
Daft.ie is Ireland's largest property website. In 2007, over €60 billion worth of Irish property was listed on the site. The latest audited report from ABCe (April 2008) shows traffic of 75 million page impressions (pages of information received) and 974,595 unique users. Daft.ie is now the number one property website in Ireland across all demographics, from first-time-buyers to commercial property investors.

About the Daft.ie House Price Report
The Daft.ie House Price Report, now in its 19th edition, is based on an analysis of the full database of properties posted for advertisement on Daft.ie up to 1st October 2008. The monthly average for properties posted is just over 40,000. This figure represents a large percentage of the available properties for sale in the country and therefore gives a very accurate and timely reflection of what is actually happening in the Irish property market. Figures are calculated from econometric regressions using standard methods.