With prices, forget regional, think local

A PROPERTY seminar in the Radisson Blu hotel tonight will tell buyers to ignore most of what they’ve been told about national price trends and focus on local markets, which they say vary greatly. The organisers claim to have the inside track on which areas of Dublin are still seeing price drops, which have stabilised and which have seen an uplift.

Carol Tallon of property sourcing company Buyers Brokers ltd, which is hosting the event with another company called Home Brokers, reckons most of the current data published by property websites or agencies providing breakdowns on values in specific areas of Dublin is either inaccurate or not detailed enough.

She is telling buyers to think twice before buying in parts of the city, because of the level of oversupply and the fact that prices are still falling. In some neighbourhoods, she’s advising people not to buy until 2011 unless they can get a 25 per cent cut on the asking price. Parts of Dublin 15, she says, still have a way to go. By contrast, south county Dublin where supply is down and demand steady, is performing better with some areas seeing a lift. “In Orpen in Stillorgan, you could buy a three-bed semi for under €400,000 last summer, now the lowest is €460,000,” she says.

However, within each area there are micro-markets, like Rathfarnham. At the Knocklyon end, there’s oversupply and you can buy a five-bed family home for €400,000-€420,000, but it’s hard to find even a three-bed within a half a mile of the village.

She says some parts of the northside didn’t experience the 50 per cent drop that’s been widely reported, with prices in Phibsboro stronger than in D8.

A previous seminar held in July was made up of 50 per cent first-time buyers and 30 per cent non-nationals – cash buyers, mainly of Asian origin, looking to pool their resources with family members to buy cheap property in inner city Dublin areas “traditionally not considered good areas, for around €100,000- €120,000. It was a market we weren’t aware existed.”

She anticipates another bumper auction of property like the one held in the Shelbourne earlier this year, which she believes wasn’t the flop it was reported to be.