House prices fall by 1.4 per cent in Connacht

House prices fall by 1.4 per cent in Connacht


Anton McNulty

The average asking price for residential property in Mayo in the first quarter of 2011 was €180,000, a fall of €88,000 from the peak.
The survey of residential property published by daft.ie, Ireland’s largest property website shows that asking prices for residential property around the country fell by an average of 3.1 per cent during the first three months of 2011.
The national average asking price for property has fallen 43 per cent since the peak and now stands at €210,000, while the average time to sell a property is now nine months, the same as a year ago.
In Connacht, asking prices fell by an average of 1.4 per cent in the first three months of 2011, smaller than the falls seen between September and December last year. The average asking price in Mayo in the first quarter of 2011 was €180,000, a fall of €88,000 from the peak.
In Dublin, asking prices fell by 4.1 per cent during the past three months, while in Galway, prices fell by almost 5 per cent. In Cork and Waterford, prices dropped by about 3 per cent, while Limerick city saw falls of just 2 per cent between January and April. Outside the main cities, asking prices fell by an average of 2.7 per cent, the smallest fall in three years.
Commenting on the survey, Ronan Lyons, economist with daft.ie said the ongoing mismatch between supply and demand is pushing prices further down.
“Prospective buyers find it difficult to get the finance, while owner occupiers are often restricted by negative equity. As a result, the market is moving very slowly. Of the 3,000 properties posted for sale fifteen months ago at the start of 2010, one in three is still for sale, although in Dublin the figure is closer to just one in six.”