Property asking prices may not always be the greatest indicator of their worth (this is why the residential Property Price Register of sold prices has been a godsend). However, movements in those asking prices can be an indicator of market sentiment.
So it caught the Block’s attention this week that almost three quarters of all changes in asking prices in Dublin so far this year have been downwards.
In analysing the number of price changes in the capital for the year to date, property website MyHome.ie found that 71 per cent of vendors had lowered their price expectations by reducing the asking price on their property.
In total, there were 2,103 price changes in Dublin between January 1st and April 22nd this year, with just 609 of them, or 29 per cent, positive adjustments upwards.That is a dramatic fall from the same period in 2014 when around 54 per cent of price changes were positive and less than half were negative.
In Dublin, where about 5,000 homes are for sale, nearly 500 sellers changed their asking price this month alone, with almost four-fifths of these changes negative.
Responding to the figures, Rowena Quinn of Hunters Estate Agents said: “There has been an adjustment in the market in recent months with more competition to sell a property because there is a greater supply. Last year the lack of supply pushed prices up and we frequently found ourselves in a situation where there were three or four bidders pushing for a property. Now there is greater choice in many areas so there are maybe only one or two bidders on a lot of houses.
And some of the falls have been dramatic, as in the case of Langara House in Glenageary which has dropped its asking price by almost a third since mid-February. Having initially gone on the market last May for €3,950,000, it is now available for €2,750,000.
