FORMER BRITISH prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once pronounced, there are three types of lie: “Lies, damned lies and statistics.”
This was best evidenced recently when statistics published by MyHome.ieand Daft.ieindicated the average price of a three bed semi in Longford is now €100,000.
Step forward Longford auctioneer Jonathan Quinn who begged to differ on Monday last when he told The Longford Leader: “That’s not the case. In Longford there is a huge difference between the asking price and the actual sale price; in fact we would be selling three-bed semi-detached houses across the county from between €45,000 right up to about €130,000 at the moment.”
The average three-bed house prices are lowest in the Midlands, most notably in Longford, Laois (€116,000) and Leitrim (€109,500).
But Quinn says that despite a perceived stabilisation in prices, there can be massive variations around the county.
“In estates, sale prices are lower than those of one-off housing; in some cases 10 per cent lower. Apartments and dwellings in estates are definitely down and in Edgeworthstown, for example, we were getting nowhere with three bed semi-detached dwellings, so we decided to drop the prices to €50,000 and sold three in the last couple of weeks.”
The experiences of the Longford property market vis-a-vis the statistics are hardly isolated, there is plenty of similar anecdotal evidence from other counties to back up Quinn’s experience. Further reason – if any were needed - for the new property price register (of sale prices) to get up and running asap.
