Property price slide continues

Ireland's housing market remained unstable at the start of the year with prices down 0.6 per cent last month.

According to the official register, property values fell again in the new year after signs of recovery in the autumn.

The fall recorded for January was the largest single monthly drop since June of last year and took the drop over the previous 12 months to 3.3 per cent.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) say the average price of a house is half of what it was at the peak of the boom in spring 2007.

In Dublin residential property prices, however, rose by 0.5 per cent in January and were 2.1 per cent higher than a year ago.