€75,000 negative equity for Mayo home owners

€75,000 negative equity for Mayo home owners


Rowan Gallagher

THE average asking price for a house in Mayo in the third quarter of 2010 was €190,000, a fall of €75,000 from the peak.
In Connacht, asking prices fell by an average of 3.9 per cent between June and September, compared to a fall of 3.5 per cent in the second quarter of the year alone.
Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft.ie said; “The key driver of house prices at the moment is the mismatch of supply and demand. Many would-be first-time buyers still lack either the confidence or the finance to enter the sales market. As a result, the total supply on the market still remains very high. The total stock on the market has been close to 60,000 for over two years now.”
Though the prices are falling month on month there is hope, according to Lyons.
“Nonetheless, there are properties selling,” Lyons continued. “Of the 5,000 properties listed for sale during April, about two in five have now sold.
Evidence from the capital suggests that more realistic sellers find it easier to sell.
In Dublin, where prices have dropped by significantly more than elsewhere, only about one in three properties listed for sale in April is still on the market.”
Asking prices for residential property around the country fell by an average of 3.7 per cent during the third quarter of 2010, according to the latest report published by property website Daft.ie.
The national average asking price for property has fallen 37 per cent since the peak and now stands at €195,000, while the average time to sell a property is now 8.4 months, down from 9.1 months since the start of the year.
In Dublin, asking prices fell less than those in Mayo at a rate of 3.3 per cent during the past 3 months, while in Cork and Waterford prices dropped by about 1.5 per cent. Prices in Galway and Limerick were largely static during the summer months, while in outside the main cities, asking prices fell by an average of 4.3 per cent.
The largest falls were seen in Longford, Kilkenny and Monaghan, which saw asking prices by up to 10 per cent in three months.