Asking prices fall almost 20% over the last 12 months

7th July, 2009 - Asking prices for residential property fell almost 6% nationwide in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest report published by property website Daft.ie. The national average asking price now stands at €263,000, 19% lower than this time a year ago and 23% lower than the peak in 2007.

Dublin city centre was again the hardest hit with asking prices falling 11% in the past 3 months alone. In Cork and Limerick city, prices dropped by 4% and 6% respectively, while in Galway and Waterford cities, prices fell by just over 2%. The average fall in prices outside the main cities was 4.8%.

The average time-on-market for residential sales properties has increased significantly over the last two years and is now over 7 months, compared with only 6 weeks during the boom.

Commenting on the report's findings, Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft.ie said: "The large price drops we have seen in Dublin over the past year appear to have had an effect on the level of transactions in the capital. Over the past three months, the percentage of properties coming off the market in Dublin has risen steadily, suggesting that if properties are priced correctly, they will sell."

The full report, available at www.daft.ie/report contains a commentary by Oliver Gilvarry, Head of Research at Dolmen Stockbrokers.

For further information please contact:

Ronan Lyons (01 421 8700), Daft.ie - media@daft.ie

Notes to the editor:
Daft.ie is Ireland's largest property website. The latest audited report from ABCe (September 2008) shows traffic of 85 million page impressions (pages of information received) and 1,025,838 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 23rd edition, is based on an analysis of the full database of properties posted for advertisement on Daft.ie up to 30 June 2009. The monthly average for properties posted is over 12,000. 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.