Sellers stuck with houses that have been for sale since the slump started are having to cut prices again, writes FRANCES O'ROURKE

WITH A shortage of quality second-hand houses coming onto the market, Dublin estate agents are persuading owners of houses that have lingered long on the market to cut their price yet again in an effort to sell.

This week Lisney has dropped the price of a large Georgian house with garden and mews at Baggot Street, to €2.25 million – down from €5 million when the property was first offered for sale over two years ago.

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The 55 per cent price cut should revive interest in the house, number 72, close to Baggot Street Bridge, which has languished on the market since the summer of 2006.

The 392sq m (4,200sq ft) terraced house with a separate basement flat is one of the last inhabited houses on Lower Baggot Street; it’s owned by a dentist who has lived and worked here for decades.

Keen property watchers will know that most “new to the market” homes available now are trying for a sale again, most at greatly reduced prices which reflect the reality of the market, where house prices have fallen on average between 40 and 50 per cent and more, depending on location.

Take Fairlawn House in Dalkey, a large Edwardian house on an acre on Saval Park Road, which has been for sale since June 2007.

It started out at €6.25 million but this week, joint agents Sherry Fitz-Gerald and Harper O’Grady announced the price had been cut to €2.2 million – a staggering 65 per cent down from its boom time valuation.

Elsewhere, agents have been keeping busy in the quiet opening weeks of 2010, relaunching properties that have failed to sell since they were launched in the last two to four years.

The boards on some have never come down, others have been quietly on and off the market in that time.

Lisney has cut the price of a Victorian five-bed at 3 Palmerston Park, Rathmines, Dublin 6, by 51 per cent. The 342sq m (3,681sq ft) period house was withdrawn from auction in February 2008 at €3.9 million, was later cut by €1 million to €2.9 million and has been reduced to €1.9 million this week. The two-storey over garden house has intact original features.

A three-bed semi with a garage conversion at 116 New Cabra Road, Dublin 7, has had a more modest 28 per cent cut since September 2008 when it came on the market at €895,000.

The price of the house – which retains original features and has a 65ft south-facing garden and driveway at the front – has been reduced a number of times since then and is now for sale at €645,000, through Savills.

In September 2008, Jessefield, a detached 260sq m (2,800sq ft) double-fronted residence at the Palmerston Park end of Dartry Road, was put up for sale by private treaty for €2.85 million.

The early Edwardian five-bed with a single-storey extension has a garden with a terracotta patio and mature lawn.

But it didn’t sell and now agent Douglas Newman Good has cut the price by 33 per cent to €1.9 million.

There are plenty more houses still looking for buyers, all good value by comparison with the 2006/2007 peak.