House prices recover in just three areas

HOUSE prices have finally begun to see a mini-recovery — but only if the property has an address in Monaghan, Carlow or Galway city.

Asking prices for homes in these areas rose during the summer months by a dramatic 10% in the case of Monaghan and Carlow and a more modest but no less surprising 1% in the “city of the tribes”.

But sales and rental website Daft.ie which published the figures, warned against declaring the property crash over — it points out that prices nationally fell on average by 3.5% during the July-September period and even in the three areas that bucked the trend, prices are still lower than they were this time last year.

Daft.ie economist Ronan Lyons said the figures for Monaghan and Carlow may be more to do with seller strategy than any real recovery in the market.

“It may be a case that sellers have begun to realise that buyers are bidding well below the asking price and so they’ve raised the asking price on the assumption the agreed price will come in below that.

“It could also be that there is a main player in the estate agent market who’s influencing that decision but if so, it’s probably not sustainable because other estate agents will probably act differently and buyers will begin to see what’s happening.”

The overall picture remains one of declining property values with the latest drop pushing more areas over the half-way mark where prices are now less than half what they were at the peak in 2007.

The most dramatic slump has been in Dublin city centre where prices have fallen by 55%. Dublin’s south city region, south county Dublin, Waterford county, Wexford, Laois, Louth and Offaly have also seen prices fall by 50% or more.

Limerick, Kerry and Mayo prices have fallen by between 36% and 39.5%.

Those figures differ only very slightly from those calculated by rival website MyHome.ie which puts the average price fall nationally between July and September at 3.2% compared with Daft’s 3.5%.

Economist Annette Hughes, who compiled the MyHome report, said continued economic uncertainty meant prices would continue to fall for the remainder of this year.

And while one man’s negative equity should be another man’s chance of an affordable home, things are not working out that way.

Ms Hughes said: “Irish consumers remain cautious due to international and domestic concerns.

“On the one hand they are worried about the euro financial crisis and its impact on economic and employment growth prospects, while on the other they are concerned about household finances as well as continuing difficulties securing mortgage finance.”

Ronan Lyons said access to mortgage finance was a major issue.

“Without a change in strategy by the banks, the outlook for house prices remains tough for the rest of the year, with a market of many sellers but few buyers able to borrow,” he said.