County property prices remain down

WHILE there has been talk of stabilising property prices nationwide, it’s down, down, down in County Clare.
That’s the verdict of the latest Daft report into the housing market, which saw a 13.1% drop in asking prices in the Banner in the year to mid-2013.

Clare saw one of the worst drops in the country, although asking prices did fall in most counties. Dublin was a very noticeable exception and there was a phenomenal 12.2% increase in the south of the county.

According to the Daft research, the average price of a house in Clare is €137,374.

Kieran Harte of Daft.ie said the Clare experience is similar to that of neighbouring houses.

“What we’re really seeing from a Clare perspective is a fairly substantive drop. It looks like a steady fall and it is pretty high in counties around you.”

While prices are dropping in this and most other regions, there is some stabilisation in certain, mostly urban parts of the country.

Mr Clarke said this is probably because prices in such centres declined more quickly.

“We are seeing more houses move now. The overall trend is that cities, particularly in Dublin, saw their prices fall furthest quickest. Their drops were by far the earliest and we weren’t seeing many properties move over the last two years.

“That has picked up now and if you look at the ­property price register we’re seeing more transactions taking place across the country.

“That might be encouraging more people to put their houses on the market, and if you’re putting it up at a realistic price it would see a trend of dropping prices.

“It’s really just following what’s already been happening in the cities.”

One positive he sees for Clare property owners is that the stabilisation seen in urban areas is likely to spread.

“If it’s slowing in Dublin and the urban centres you’d assume the counties outside of that would be the next to stabilise.”

Compared to other countries, he says that people still expect to spend more on housing in Ireland.

“We do a survey at the start of every year and we ask users of the site what their earnings are and what they expect to pay for a house.

“We’ve actually seen that number come down over the last few years. Nationally, that’s at 4.2 and at times it was up at six and seven.

“We’re seeing more ­realistic expectations but generally in markets it is between three and four around the world.”