FURTHER GLOOMY news on the state of the property market yesterday with the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index showing prices have fallen back to summer 2004 levels. In other words, we have all lost five years gain on our homes.
The index claims that prices have dropped a further 4.9 per cent nationally since the beginning of the year, the fastest rate of decline since the index started in 1996. The price of starter homes is falling fastest, down 7.9 per cent since January, according to the survey.
Sounds bad, but the market is a lot worse off than in 2004. By our reckoning, the summer market five years ago was racing along, with prices far better than those transacted today. A few examples from our auction sales page this day five years ago: Foxrock four-bedroom detached house, sold €2.43 million; Sandymount three-bedroom Victorian house, sold €1.23 million; Leeson Park Avenue, D6, three-bedroom house, sold €1.5 million; Albert Place House East, D2, three-bedroom house, sold €786,000; Kilmacud three-bedroom semi sold for over €595,000; Carlisle Street, SCR, three-bedroom house sold €960,000; New Ross, Wexford, 15.7-acre site, zoned residential, sold €3.25 million; etc, etc.
These prices are in some cases far higher than those being achieved today. The Permanent TSB/ESRI will have to go a bit further back for comparisons – try 2002 post-9/11 when a similar, though short-lived, paralysis gripped the market.
