Irish property market faces crushing fall

Residential property prices in Ireland fell 10.8% in 2010 and the outlook for this year is subdued with low sales volumes and a weak-lending market.

Prices are now down 38% decrease for their peak at the end 2006, according to figures from the latest permanent tsb/ESRI House Price Index. But there are signs that the decline in prices is slowing. While the rate of decline in average house prices in Ireland rose in the final quarter of 2010 compared to the previous quarter, the rate of decline for the year as a whole was significantly less than what was seen in 2009, the index also shows.

National property prices in Ireland fell by 3.5% in the fourth quarter of 2010 on top of 1.3% decline in the third quarter of the year. The annual fall of 10.8% compares with a decline of 18.5% in 2009 and a year on year decline of 14.8% to the end of the third quarter of 2010.

The average price for a house nationally in the fourth quarter of 2010 was €191,776, compared with €215,086 in the fourth quarter 2009 and €311,078 at the peak of the market.