RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES fell 8.1 per cent over the period of January to October of this year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

This compares with an annual rate of decline of 9.6 per cent in September and a decline of 15.1 per cent recorded between October 2010 to October 2011.

The CSO’s Residential Property Price Index shows that property prices fell nationally by 0.6 per cent in October, bringing an end to two month of gains. A decline of 2.2 per cent was recorded in October 2011.

Regions

In Dublin, residential property prices fell by 0.2 per cent in October and were 7.1 per cent lower than a year ago.

Within Dublin, house prices declined by 0.2 per cent in October but were 7.8 per cent lower than compared to a year earlier. Meanwhile, apartment prices in Dublin were 7.1 per cent lower when compared with the same month of 2011.

In the rest of Ireland (ie excluding Dublin), the price of residential properties in the fell by 0.9 per cent in October compared with a decline of 2 per cent in October of last year.

Overall decline

In Dublin, residential house prices are 56 per cent lower than at their highest level February 2007, while the price of apartments is 63 per cent lower than in February 2007.

The fall in the price of residential properties across the rest of the country is 47 per cent.

Overall, the national index is 50 per cent lower than its highest level during the peak of the boom in 2007.

Graph via CSO