According to the Property Price Register, the average price paid for a house in the Republic in October was €181,295, a drop of 25 per cent on last year.
But what kind of a property can you get for €181,295 these days? That depends entirely on where you are looking. In Dublin, for example, it might get you an apartment in a suburb or in a secondary location in the city centre , a two or three-bed terraced house on the fringes of the centre or a three-bed semi in an outer suburb.
In Longford town, it will buy you a plush five-bed detached house on substantial gardens in the best part of the town and you might have money left over to do it up.
In a snapshot of houses across the country in this price bracket, it will come as no surprise that you can get more house for your money outside Dublin. But while the supply of property is generally low in the capital, there are properties for under €200,000, albeit largely executor and bank sales.
In Dublin, where the average transaction price in October was €257,776, a three-bed terraced house on Shantalla Drive in Beaumont, Dublin 9, is €180,000 through Gallagher Quigley and a three-bed semi on Shanliss Road in Santry, Dublin 9, is €179,000 through movehome.ie.
Further out in the suburbs, a three-bed semi in Hillcrest Heights in Lucan, Co Dublin, is €175,000 through ReMax while a three-bed end-of-terrace house at Ballyogan Lawn, Carrickmines, Dublin 18, is €164,950.
According to Darren Chambers of Lisney there is some “unbelievable” value out there such as the five-bed doer upper in Collins Park in Beaumont which he sold for €170,000.
In Galway city the average asking price for a three-bed semi is around €164,000. For that you can get a three-bed semi in areas such as Knocknacarra to the west of the city and Renmore to the east, and a four bed in Doughiska to the east. But in other areas around the city such as Salthill, Taylor’s Hill, Bushypark and Claddagh you will struggle to find property under €200,000.
In Cork city €180,000 might get you a three-bed semi in parts of Rochestown, Douglas and Glanmire.
Meanwhile if you had €181,000 to spend on a house in Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo or Roscommon, it would get you a substantial detached four or five-bed property on a decent plot.
In Longford, agent Padraic Davis says €180,000 will buy you a “fantastic property in Longford town at the high end of the market. You are talking a detached house on half an acre and it would want to be very well finished.”
However Brian Farrell of REA Brophy Farrell in Newbridge, Co Kildare, warns that a property is only good value if it has a re-sale value.
In the greater Dublin area, he says, supply is generally down but there are areas in the commuter belt where there are hundreds of properties for sale.
“My advice,” says Farrell, “would be that secondary locations are bad value.”
That is unless the secondary location in question is where you really want to live.
