Is the current static market a good or a bad thing? It depends on whether you are buying or selling, house-hunters tell Kate Holmquist.
Sailors have a term for it: "in irons". It's what happens when the sails can't catch wind and the boat is paralysed, at risk of capsizing from a side-driving wave. And it's an apt description of the property market at the moment. The fair winds that have driven prices up for the past decade are a memory. Estate agents' phones have stopped ringing like they did. Buying property is no longer a sure way to make a buck.
First-time buyers Andrew Betson (28) and his girlfriend Louise Burns (23), who have €400,000 to spend on a house, have been watching prices drop since last March, when they pulled out of buying a house at the last minute in the hope that a new Government would lower stamp duty. Since then, they've seen a four-fold increase in the number of houses on the market in their price range.
"We're holding fire," says Betson. "We've seen €400,000 houses in Celbridge and Maynooth drop to €360,000 almost overnight and we don't feel comfortable putting our money into a house now only to see it drop by another €40,000 in the next three months."
The couple are also wary of buying into a new estate - despite offers of free cars in some cases - having seen poor building standards and tiny gardens, as well as hearing about school shortages in some new suburbs. "We had a lucky escape," Betson says of their decision to wait.
An uncertain housing market hasn't stopped actor Helen Roche putting her period house up for sale yesterday with a price tag of €1.75 million.
She thinks it's a fair price and that, even if her house is seen as a bargain, she will benefit at the other end by paying less for the smaller property she has her eye on in the same area. She's sad to leave No 3, Lower Albert Road in Sandycove, because she loves the house and the location with the seafront nearby.
"I can walk everywhere and if I need to go into town, I use the Dart. I last filled my car with petrol on July 21st," she says.
But Roche is willing to give this up for her children, to whom she intends to give €100,000 each after she sells. She thinks they should buy soon to take advantage of the market. And, while one son will use the €100,000 to knock a chunk off his mortgage, her other two children, including daughter Karen McDonnell, will be in the same position as many first-time buyers, unable to afford the sort of house full of character that they grew up in on Albert Road.
Helen always expected to be "carried out in a box, feet first" from the house - but we're living in very different financial times now, she's realised.
She doesn't need such a large house, but she'll miss the location. "Sixteen years ago I fell in love with this house and had to have it. I'm hoping that someone else will come to view and fall in love with it the way I did."
Falling in love with a dream house just isn't a possibility for most young people now. Tracy O'Connor, a TV producerand director, bought a two-bed townhouse in Monkstown, Co Dublin, as a starter home at the height of the market two and a half years ago. She expected the house to increase in value so that she could look to buy a family home within a few years.
When O'Connor moved in with her husband Dhruba ("Drew") Banerjee, they had a six-month-old son, Ben. Now they also have a daughter, Milla, who's nearly one, and desperately need another bedroom and more space now that Milla is starting to walk.
THEY PUT THEIR starter home on the market last February, when Milla was three months old. They were told to expect to sell within six to eight weeks. The reality has been demoralising. O'Connor has been pushing herself to the limit getting the house ready for viewings, which is no joke with a baby and a toddler, only to find that, typically, four out of six viewers don't show up. They've gradually dropped the price from €585,000 to €495,000 - nearly 20 per cent.
Meanwhile, every time there's a viewing, O'Connor has to drive around in a car packed with two babies and all their toys and equipment for the duration so that the house can be shown at its best - fresh flowers, coffee, decluttered space, the lot. "To be honest, we're thinking of taking it off the market because the stress is not worth it. We want our lives back," says O'Connor, who now sees herself and her family "stuck in limbo" for the foreseeable future. "At least we have healthy, happy children and a roof over our heads," she says.
Like O'Connor, many young couples have lowered their expectations. Johnny Kane (27) and his girlfriend, Mags Salmon, have just bid €290,000 for a house in Belcamp, north Dublin, fully believing that the house will drop in value by as much as one-third before prices start to rise again.
From their point of view, being stuck with a mortgage in a devaluing house will still be better than paying €1,100 a month in dead money on rent, and they hope that in five years' time, when they start a family and want to trade up, their house will have risen in value.
Dave Oliver (26) and his fiancée, Siobhán Carr, have just paid €300,000 for a two-bedroom apartment in Ashbourne, Co Meath, with a 100 per cent mortgage over 35 years. For just a little more, they could have bought a five-bedroom house in the country, but don't want to waste their lives commuting. They hope that in five years, the market will rise again so they can trade up to a family home in Dublin near their families.
Is this dream a real possibility? The market will tell and, while there may be hype and panic, nobody has a crystal ball.