Last September this Martello tower in Killiney was on the market for £2.5 million (3.17m). Now it is for sale for £750,000 (952,300). It's an unusual house and therefore difficult for any agent to price but the massive drop in just 10 months is an indicator of what is happening at all levels in the property market.

While this dramatic fall off in value is exceptional in Dublin, it is nevertheless sending out signals that the five-year boom has finally come to an end.

A more typical example is a Rathmines redbrick on Ormond Road which was withdrawn from auction in March and then offered for sale at £595,000 (756,000). Two months later the price was reduced to £560,000 (711,050). Now it's for sale for £520,000 (660,264).

The real slowdown in the market began at the end of March and by the end of May the number of houses going to auction was 30 per cent less than in the same period last year. The clearest indicator of the slippage in the market can be found in the ever increasing number of houses withdrawn at auction. Some 50 per cent of all houses were withdrawn this year - in many cases without having attracted a single bid. Agents are now saying that in the autumn the number of houses going to auction will fall even further.

A slowdown was already obvious in January at the start of what is usually the busiest selling season. The main agents took on 30 per cent more houses than usual as people rushed to cash in while the prices were still high.

"In January we were saying that prices would rise by 10 to 11 per cent this year but after March we revised our figures down to 5 per cent," says Wade Wise, managing director of HOK Residential.

In a market over-supplied with second-hand houses, it's hardly surprising that it is taking considerably longer to sell. Last year a typical sales campaign for a family home up to £500,000 (635,000) ran for less than a month - this year the same houses are taking up to nine weeks to sell.

Given the number of withdrawals and the vast choice available to buyers who have money in their pockets, agents have been advising vendors not just to be realistic but to drop their asking prices to clinch a sale before the summer break.

According to Tom Day, director of Lisney, that summer break came in June - a month earlier than in previous years. However he is still optimistic that buyers can be found if houses are priced to reflect the new reality in the market.

There is a general acceptance that the ongoing crisis facing the high-tech industries, together with the foot-and-mouth scare helped to undermine confidence in the market. On the ground, the lending institutions have been implementing a much tighter mortgage regime because of their overexposure in the market and fears that negative equity could well emerge - particularly with houses costing more than £500,000 (635,000).

The people who are really feeling the effects of the slowdown are people trading up who bought in the spring and now find it difficult to shift their own homes without dropping prices significantly.

The trading-up process, which fuels a major proportion of the market, has also been slowed down considerably due to the refusal of banks to make bridging finance available on a long-term basis. In most cases, banks are insisting that those trading up must have a contract to sell before they will release funds allowing them to buy. Now the advice to would-be house buyers is to sell before they even think of house-hunting.

The fall off in demand has also had a serious impact on some segments of the new homes market.

Sales of new houses outside the greater Dublin area have slowed to a trickle in many villages and towns and in some cases developers are offering incentives ranging from a high-spec fit out that includes electrical appliances to a year's worth of mortgage repayments to attract buyers.

In the Dublin suburbs, newly developed apartments are extremely difficult to sell and the signs are that builders will switch back to providing traditional starter homes from next autumn. The apartment market in Dublin city centre has not escaped the slowdown completely and while sales for second-hand apartments are strong, prices are marginally down on last year.

There has been only a handful of new apartment developments in Dublin in the last six months because of developers' disenchantment with the Government's intervention in the market.

However those available have sold extremely well, many to young first time buyers. For example the latest apartment scheme in Dublin's Docklands have made top prices and the next phases are due to be launched in the autumn.

There has also been a sharp fall off in land values because of the reluctance of builders to hand over 20 per cent of the sites for social or affordable housing. Only last week the thirteen and a half-acre site at Clancy Barracks in Islandbridge in Dublin failed to sell when only one housebuilder tendered for it along with Dublin Corporation.

Sales of country estates were also badly effected this year, largely because of the foot-and-mouth threat and the country market was slower than usual to get going.

"Caution has come into the market," says Tom Day.