S&P: House prices have hit bottom

HOUSE prices have hit bottom, according to one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies — but it will be a few years before the market picks up.

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said property prices “have completed their correction”. It said, however, this does not mean the market will pick up again soon.

S&P said in its latest report that house prices in Ireland at the end of 2010 were down 33% from their peak — the largest price contraction in western Europe since the beginning of the current crisis.