IRELAND will finally get a detailed property price register by next June. Tom Lynch, head of the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA), told Around the Block yesterday that he “would be very surprised if the Authority didn’t have it out before then”.

The PRSA, of course, is the body tasked with publishing the register, and Lynch says publishing it will be his priority, once the Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009 becomes law, likely within a month or so.

An amendment to the bill, which passed Committee stage in the Dáil in mid-October, orders that particulars of residential property sales prices, including addresses, prices paid and dates of sale, will be included in the register.

Lynch and his team, based in their Navan office, are already working out how to transfer the information from the Revenue Commissioners, already in receipt of this information for stamp duty purposes (it involves writing a new computer programme, basically).

The plan is to publish information as far back as possible, although getting accurate figures may be more difficult the further back they go, Lynch suggests. However, information going back at least two years should be included with the register.

The PSRA, set up in the days when the property industry was riding high, will have many other jobs to do. It was set up to regulate the industry and will do this by licensing everyone – from auctioneers, estate, letting and property management agents – working in the industry.

But it’s good to know that giving the public instant access to house sale prices is top of its “to do” list.