House price recovery report to be 'taken with pinch of salt'

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

Rumours of a recovery in city house prices – prompted by a report on a national sales and rental website – are probably to be ‘taken with a pinch of salt’, according to local feedback on the Galway property market.

The Daft.ie website – offering properties for sale and rent all over the country – reported this week, that the asking price for houses had risen by 1% in Galway City, over the July to September period just gone by.

The city was one of only three locations across the country reporting an increase in the asking price for residential properties – the others being Carlow and Monaghan.

However, Daft do point out that overall the general trend in property is one of ‘declining values’ with most houses selling for half of what they would have fetched in 2006-2007, at the height of the property boom. They also point out that overall, house prices in Ireland, are down on what they were this time last year. Ronan Rooney, MD of Rooney Auctioneers, told the Sentinel, that ‘asking prices’ were not reflective of what properties were actually making when it came down to the nitty-gritty of doing a deal.

“A number of factors must be looked at in relation to this report. Firstly, the August-September period is a traditional time for selling houses, and secondly, people selling family homes will tend to be looking for that bit more than investors who will sell on very tight margins,” said Mr Rooney.

He added that there was ‘real value’ to be had in the property market, with a reasonably good market for houses up to the €200,000 to €210,000 mark.

“Once you go above the €220,000 mark, there does seem to be a difficulty in terms of sourcing the mortgages to fund deals. But from that figure down, there is really good value to be had and deals are being done,” said Mr Rooney.

He said that looking ahead to the next six to 12 months, there didn’t seem to be any great indication of any major changes happening, with a lot of ‘stressed properties’ [where owners are under pressure to sell] still coming on the market.

“There is real value out there especially in the house and apartment market, especially between the €100,000 and €200,000 mark, and that’s probably the way it’ll be for the coming year,” said Mr Rooney.