Surveys paint contrasting pictures of property market

Recovery in the Dublin property market continues to gather momentum, according to property-listing websites Daft and MyHome.ie.

However, the websites gave contrasting pictures of what was happening outside the capital in their asking-price reports for the first quarter of 2014.

MyHome’s latest property barometer suggested asking prices in Dublin rose by 1.3 per cent to €244,000 in the first quarter of this year, the fourth consecutive quarterly rise.

In contrast, it found prices nationally fell by 0.7 per cent to €188,000. However, this was the lowest rate of decline in more than six years.

Disparity
The website's mix-adjusted asking price – an average measure that takes account of housing with different characteristics – suggested there was a 30 per cent disparity between asking prices in Dublin and across the Republic as a whole. A year ago the difference was just under 20 per cent.

Separate figures from Daft found the average asking price for properties outside Dublin rose 2.3 per cent during the first three months of 2014, the first quarterly rise since mid-2007, ending a run of 26 quarters of falling values outside the capital.

The website’s latest house- price report shows average asking prices in Dublin rose by 5.7 per cent during the same period.

Nationally, the average asking price was now €177,000, up 3.5 per cent on the same period last year but still 53 per cent down on the market’s 2007 peak.

Daft.ie found prices in the capital were 15 per cent higher than at the same stage last year, with annual increases recorded in Cork and Galway city centres of 2 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.