House prices fall 8.9% in 12 months

House prices fell again in March, bringing the rate of decline for the first quarter of the year to 2.2 per cent, according to the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index.

Prices dropped 0.7 per cent last month, compared to a 0.8 per cent fall in February, leaving prices down 8.9 per cent compared with March 2007.

According to the survey, the data suggests some easing of the rate of reduction compared to the last quarter of 2007 when the monthly reduction was an average of 1.3 per cent and the quarterly fall was 3.9 per cent.

The average price paid for a house in the Republic in March was €281,643, compared to €287,887 in December 2007. The average price paid for a house in Dublin in March was €390,274 and outside Dublin €242,300.

Dublin house prices fell 0.2 per cent last month, compared to 1.1 per cent drop in February, and by 9.1 per cent in the year since March 2007.

Prices for houses outside Dublin fell 0.6 per cent last month, compared to a 1.3 per cent fall in March, and 8.8 per cent for the year.

Permanent TSB marketing manager Niall O'Grady said he was confident about the accuracy of the survey because the data was not taken from estate agents.

“The data has nothing to do with estate agents and is taken from transaction data,” he said.

He added that the results indicated the “continuing softening in both house prices and transactions” and said sellers targeting first-time buyers have adjusted their prices very significantly.

House prices in the commuter counties of Louth; Meath, Kildare and Wicklow dropped 0.5 per cent in March compared with a fall of 1 per cent in February.

Over the year prices for properties in these areas have fallen by 7.1 per cent.

The average price of a house in these counties was €314,054 in March, down from,€321,403 in December.