HOUSE PRICES in Dublin fell by 16.5 per cent on average last year, and estate agents forecast a further decline of about 10 per cent in 2009.
The apartment market fared the worst, with the prices of second-hand apartments in Dublin falling by just over 20 per cent, according to a new report from the Irish Auctioneers’ and Valuers’ Institute (IAVI). Prices of new apartments in the capital were down 18 per cent in 2008.
According to the annual survey of IAVI members, estate agents are reporting price cuts of between 15 and 50 per cent across all property sectors, with transaction levels down by between 50 to 90 per cent.
Agents that made money in 2008 were “as rare as hen’s teeth”, according to the report.
“Bread and butter work such as rent reviews and valuations have become the jam on what admittedly is a fairly miserable sponge,” according to the IAVI’s commentary on the survey findings.
The report states that members feel that “the market has probably not bottomed out” and that further reductions of 10.4 per cent in capital values for residential property may be experienced in 2009.
Just over half of estate agents surveyed predicted a recovery in the overall property market in 2010, with 29 per cent of the members of the IAVI expecting it later. About one in 10 responding to the survey say a return to equilibrium will not happen until 2012 or later.
IAVI data also indicate that capital values for retail and licensed premises are down significantly. Licensed premises in Connacht suffered the worst, with values down between 22 and 33 per cent. In Dublin, capital values for licensed premises are down between 18 and 43 per cent.
The value of residential sites also fell by between one-quarter and two-fifths in Dublin and by about one-third in Connacht.
Site values, according to the IAVI, are down between one-fifth and one-third in the rest of Leinster and Munster.
Residential rents are also down, according to the survey.
Residential rents fell in 2008 by just under 8 per cent in Dublin, just under 7 per cent in the rest of Leinster, by 5 cent in Munster and 9 per cent in Connacht.
Describing the figures as “unpalatable”, IAVI president Edward Carey says the report confirms what “estate agents have been saying anecdotally”. Pointing to a considerable overhang of unsold stock of almost 100,000 units, he predicts an increase in transaction levels before any increase in prices. He expects vendors to adopt a more innovate approach to selling and says that buyers “need to see value”.
The latest Daft.ie house report, also published yesterday, shows that asking prices for houses fell almost 15 per cent over 2008.
The decline in prices, according to the property website, accelerated in the latter months of 2008 with asking prices falling 5.8 per cent in the last quarter alone.
According to Daft.ie, the national average asking price fell €58,000 in 12 months to €295,000, the same level as in January 2006.