A "FOR SALE" sign has been standing in the garden of 9 Seachnaill Place, Dunshaughlin since January this year. This three-bedroom three reception room dormer bungalow in a small residential estate has generated quite an amount of interest from potential buyers, but so far, there have been no offers at the asking price of £180,000.

At the south end of the commuter belt, a three-bedroom detached bungalow on Putland Road in Bray went to auction last October - and nobody turned up at the auction. Elsewhere, a four-bedroom semidetached house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Knocklyon has been on the market for a few months with no offers, and, in Killiney, an attractive four-bedroom house which has been for sale for some months is sticking at £280,000. None of the owners had anticipated any problems selling their properties. They believed that in the present booming economy they would get a quick sale and a premium price.

However, with the selling season now peaking, buyers have a lot of properties to choose from and sellers are suffering from the seasonal glut. "I didn't think we would have problems selling our house," reflects Peter O'Shea, whose Dunshaughlin house went on the market with an asking price of £180,000 last January. "We never intended selling but then we saw another house here in Dunshaughlin that we wanted to buy. We agreed terms of sale and set mid-March as the provisional date when everything would be finalised. The date came and went, and there have been a few potential buyers but no offers; we are very anxious about what's happening."

Seachnaill Place is a small estate just outside Dunshaughlin village on the Dublin-Meath border and consists of 21 four-bedroom detached houses and six dormer bungalows. Accountant Peter O'Shea bought the house in 1995 for £81,000 and lives there with his wife and their two children. Twelve months ago, a four-bedroom house in the estate sold for £182,000, leading the O'Sheas to believe that, in the present market, they could get over £185,000. Padraig Sherry, of Sherry & Associates in Dunshaughlin, which is handling the sale of 9 Seachnaill Place, is at a loss to explain why this particular house is taking so long to sell. He suggests that buyers are sitting on the fence at the moment, waiting to see if interest rates rise.

"Supply is increasing in the Dublin city area, so this does affect properties further out. While prices are still strong, the market is levelling off to a more realistic level." Stamp duty is another big factor in the sale of second-hand homes. Stamp duty of five per cent applies on properties priced from £170,000 to £250,000 and this is a hefty disincentive for first-time buyers, when they could avoid the tax altogether, and secure a first-time buyer's grant by buying a new house. While first-time buyers are still struggling to get a foot on the property ladder, and properties at the top end of the market change hands for millions, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that mid-priced property is becoming harder to sell. "For Sale" signs are now sitting in the gardens of many suburban homes for longer periods of time, often replacing auction signs when a property fails to sell under the hammer. In the last month, around 50 per cent of auctions failed in the greater Dublin area. Of the 151 properties offered for auction, 76 were withdrawn.

While no one is suggesting that the boom is over, house prices are slowing down, properties are becoming harder to sell, and buyers are becoming more discerning as more supply comes on stream.

Padraig Sherry has noticed this growing trend and believes there are three main reasons why a property doesn't sell - overvaluation, poor location or the condition of the property. "The kettle has gone off the boil and what we are seeing is a more realistic picture emerge."

According to Goatstown estate agent Martin O'Mahony, vendors are being too optimistic about the value of their property. "Vendors do over-value their house, they hear stories in the pub of a house that went for x-amount down the road. This has traditionally been the time to sell a property, and people are looking to jump on the bandwagon and capitalise on the present market and hyped prices. But if a house is overpriced then it won't sell; as more choice comes available, we will see more realistic values on property. What we are seeing is a huge amount of over-inflated properties. If a house is over-valued then it won't sell." "In hindsight I would say that we bought into the hype," confesses Barry Steele, whose seafront property in Bray took almost five months to sell. Last September the Steele family decided to put their three-bedroom detached bungalow on Putland Road in Bray on the market with a guide price of £180,000. On professional advice, Barry Steele decided to sell the house at auction and hoped to achieve £220,000.

"The day of the auction was a big surprise, we had a number of people interested at the viewing stage. Our estate agent estimated that several `definites' would show up at the auction but nobody arrived. It was a bitter pill to swallow!" said Barry Steele.

The house was finally sold privately for £190,000 in January of this year, some five months after it first went on the market and the Steeles traded up to the larger house five minutes down the road. "The final price was in line with our initial expectations. We had been advised to sell the house for £180,000 but we got an offer of £190,000. We just never anticipated that it would take so long to sell our house in the market."

While vendors across the city are trying to capitalise on the boom, the market is showing real signs of "resistance", a term being used by several estate agents to describe the current state of the market.

"Sellers are being over-ambitious in their expectations," according to Frank Doonan, managing director of Gunne Residential, who suggests that those who are suffering most are people trying to sell on their starter homes. "Many of the houses that are caught in this current stalemate are homes that were purchased by first-time buyers five or so years ago. Most people are looking to sell their house and buy a better one, and since all properties have gone through the roof, sellers need to secure a certain price level on their house to afford their next move," he explains.

For some, the premium is simply not there. The house Peter O'Shea hopes to buy costs £235,000. "In order to be able to afford that we need to get £180,000-plus on our home. We have considered selling it for £175,000. We've considered all the options and are weighing them up to get the most realistic picture on what we can afford to do."