Madam, – The claim that apartments in the Gasworks, Dublin 4 are now on sale for 65 per cent less than their peak prices in 2006 (Property Supplement, May 5th) could easily be misunderstood by potential purchasers. Over 90 per cent of the apartments in the Gasworks (excluding the rental Alliance building) were sold between 2003 and 2005 at prices 30-40 per cent lower than the peak /asking/ prices quoted by the selling agents.
In January 2006, the price of the few remaining unsold apartments in the Gasworks was hiked by the developer. No apartments were subsequently sold at those inflated prices. Property is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Estate agents should be required to use actual historic transaction prices for the purpose of quoting a discount.
We are in danger of returning to the kind of hype that led to the difficulties being experienced in the Irish property market today.Have we learned nothing?– Yours, etc,