Accurate property sale prices to be accessible on state database

ACCURATE information on the sale prices of all property is to be made available in a new database to be established by the Government.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern announced yesterday that the Property Services Regulatory Authority will have statutory responsibility for publishing details of all property sales prices in future.

Estate agents and prospective buyers and sellers of property have complained that they have been forced to operate in a vacuum since 2008, amid estimates the property prices have dropped by over 40% from the peak of the market.

Information on house sale prices, with the exception of properties sold by public auction, has been virtually non-existent for the past two years following a controversy between auctioneers and the National Consumer Agency over the provision of accurate information.

The dispute arose following a complaint by a newspaper to the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute that sales figures provided by estate agents were substantially more than actual agreed sale prices.

However, private treaty sale prices could only be published with the consent of both the buyer and the seller under the Data Protection Act.

Mr Ahern said he would table amendments to legislation currently passing through the Oireachtas to establish the PSRA on a statutory basis to give effect to the new database while also bringing forward necessary amendments to data protection legislation.

It is predicted that the new database will be operational by the end of 2011 at the latest.

However, the PSRA, which is based in Navan, Co Meath, said decisions concerning how information on house sale prices was collated and publicised would not be determined until the forthcoming legislation was published.

Potential sources for data on property prices are the Property Registration Authority, which oversees the Registry of Deeds and the Land Registry, as well as estate agents, solicitors and the Revenue Commissioners.

Mr Ahern said the proposed database would provide information on house prices and reflect trends within the property market.

He claimed the proposal would give an effect to a commitment made in last year’s Renewed Programme for Government to facilitate publication of property price data to improve market transparency and early detection of market trends.

“I am very aware of the need for reliable and up-to-date data on house prices and other property. The Property Services Regulatory Authority will be in a position to ensure timely publication of this data as soon as the legislation is enacted later this year,” the minister said.

Mr Ahern said the Department of the Environment would create and maintain a house price database for statistical purposes.

Fine Gael housing spokesperson, Terence Flanagan, said the database would provide overdue transparency to the property market.

Chambers Ireland welcomed the establishment of the database as a positive move to reverse a situation where buyers had been deterred from taking part in the housing market.