HOUSE PRICES fell by 13.2 per cent in the year to the end of March and homes have halved in value since the property boom’s peak in 2006.

The average price of a second-hand house fell by 4 per cent across the Republic in the first three months of the year, according to estate agents Sherry Fitzgerald,

The decline in Dublin prices was the same as that for the State as a whole, while prices fell by 3.1 per cent in Cork.

Prices in the Republic fell 13.2 per cent in the 12 months to the end of March. The fall in Dublin over that period was 12.5 per cent while in Cork it was 12.8 per cent.

Houses in the Republic are now worth about half what they were selling for at the peak of the boom in 2006.

Sherry Fitzgerald said yesterday that Dublin prices had fallen by 55.8 per cent in real terms, while the overall market in the Republic is down by 51.1 per cent. Consequently, prices are down to the level they were at in early 2002.

In January this year, there were 53,300 second-hand houses for sale in the Republic and about 6,800 of these were in Dublin. Almost 90 per cent of those sold were bought by owner-occupiers.

Meanwhile, just two commercial property deals were done in the Republic in the first three months of the year as the market froze in the face of uncertainty over the new Government’s plans for rent reviews. These were Treasury Holdings’ sale of a new premises to multinational Google on Barrow Street in Dublin and the sale of offices occupied by Eircom in Clonskeagh, also in Dublin.

According to multinational property dealers CBRE Richard Ellis, international buyers who have been looking at the Irish market in search of bargains have decided to hold off until there is a clearer picture of Government proposals to review existing commercial rents.

Seán O’Brien, investment director at CB Richard Ellis, Ireland, said that fear that the Republic could alter private lease terms is deterring badly needed investment.