House values drop 10% in a year

HOUSE prices continued to drop last month, with the average home now having lost 10% of its value since this time last year.

Prices fell by 1% in March and by 3.1% since the start of the year so that the average stood at €253,546 — back to the levels that applied in November 2004 and a full €57,532 less than at the height of the property boom in March 2007.

The figures are compiled in the latest monthly house price index compiled by Permanent TSB and the Economic and Social Research Institute and they represent an average for houses and apartments.

The greatest decline in prices in the first three months of the year is for houses in Dublin and the surrounding commuter counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. Prices fell by 4.6% in Dublin, 3.5% in the commuter counties and 2.6% in the rest of the country.

Niall O’Grady, general manager of business strategy at Permanent TSB, said the situation wasn’t helped by lack of consumer confidence. “Despite improved affordability and six reductions in interest rates, customers lack of confidence in the economy results in them staying out of the property market.”

Prices still varied greatly in different parts of the country last month. The average price paid for a home in Dublin was €334,822, in the commuter counties €257,956 and in the rest of the country €218,261.

New houses dropped in value to a greater degree than second-hand homes — by 3.7% in the case of the former since the start of the year and by 2.6% in the case of the latter.