ANYONE trying to get a handle on the state of the housing market in Dublin is hampered by the lack of transparent information about what is selling and for how much.
Estate agents are not allowed to reveal the price of property they’ve sold without the consent of both buyer and seller under data protection law.
A group set up by the Government in March to look at establishing a house price database based on sales prices has met on a number of occasions but “there is no date as to when they will have completed their work” a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said this week.
Some in the industry believe that one reason the Government has said it will not introduce a property tax is because of the difficulty homeowners would have assessing the value of their property in the absence of a register. However, the department spokesman denied that there was any link between the two.
As the traditional spring/summer selling season draws to a close, agents report that they have sold more properties than last year, generally at prices around 40 per cent below what they would have made three years ago at the peak of the market.
This confirms the IAVI’s findings, which show that a net balance of 49 per cent of Dublin agencies surveyed closed sales in the second quarter of 2010.
Michael Grehan, head of the country’s largest estate agency, Sherry FitzGerald, said that its sales of second-hand properties were up 50 per cent on the same period last year.
Second-hand semi-detached houses in older suburbs seem to be the strongest sellers, changing hands at prices roughly between €300,000 and €700,000. Buyers include first-timers who now find these houses more affordable and people who sold their houses several years ago re-entering the market after a period of renting.
The time it takes to sell a house in Dublin has fallen since last year: the IAVI report says 15 weeks is the average in Dublin (compared to 34 weeks in Connaught). But some, like a five-bedroom detached house in Mount Annville Park, Dublin 14, was “sale agreed” by Savills in nine weeks, for around €10,000 less than the €995,000 asking price.
This confirms Property website MyHome reports that houses now sit on its site for four to five months instead of six months last year.
Although the gap between asking and selling prices can still be as much as 20 per cent, in some cases houses are selling for more than the asking price – and substantially more when two or more bidders are chasing a property
Douglas Newman Good CEO Keith Lowe says the selling price for 13 Parkmore Drive, Terenure, recently was above the €775,000 asking price because four bidders were chasing it.
Agents all say that a house in a good location asking the right price is the one that will sell. But knowing “the right price” in the absence of regular, up-to-date information about house prices is very difficult. Valuers and agents get a clearer idea of market value when a number of houses sell in a neighbourhood
Lisney has recently sold three three-bedroom semis in Mount Merrion – at 33 South Avenue, and at 9 and 21 Thornhill Road – for region €550,000. All three were originally put on the market at around €575,000.
In Fairview, Gallagher Quigley, a new estate agency started just nine weeks ago by agents Conor Gallagher and Peter Quigley, reports five sales in that period, at prices ranging from between €4,000 and €80,000 below the original asking price.
Number 50 Summerville, Clontarf, Dublin 3, a detached 1990s four-bed with an asking price of €690,000 sold in the region of €655,000; 198 Kincora Road in Clontarf, an extended 1940s/1950s house with an asking price of €595,000 sold region of €515,000. Savills agent Ronan O’Hara claims that June was probably best month for sales in one-and-a-half years. The agency has recently sold 18 Frankfort Park, Dundrum, a five-bedroom semi, for over €800,000, when the asking price was €775,000.
Of a basket of 16 sales reported by DNG, five sold for over the asking price, one “in the region”, and 10 for under the asking price.
The agency sold 21 Willbrook Road in Rathfarnham for under the asking price of €660,000; 19 Orpen Hill in Blackrock for in the region of the €415,000 asking price; and 12 Orpen Close, also in Blackrock, for over the €390,000 asking price.
The upper end of the market is still pretty static, although a Dalkey property which went on the market just nine weeks ago has sold. Agent Vincent Finnegan has sold Dolphin Cottage, a four-bed by the sea on Coliemore Road, for under €1 million. The original asking price was €1.25 million.
One valuer who did not want to be named says that the market will not find its true level while so many people are in negative equity. And although asking prices are falling to more realistic levels, he advises buyers “if someone’s looking for €500,000, offer just over €400,000; don’t be embarrassed to negotiate”.
