Asking price of a three-bed semi in Galway City drops to €132,000

Asking prices for three-bed semi-detached houses in Galway City – traditionally the ‘staple diet’ of first-time buyers – are averaging €132,000, little more than a third of their value at the height of the property boom.

According to a new report from property website Daft.ie the average asking price for any property type in the city is just over €160,000 – that’s down 6.6% on the same time last year.

However, the figures also show that the asking price for a three-bed semi is now averaging €132,000.

That’s down almost 64%, or two-thirds, on asking prices for similar properties at the height of the boom in 2007 which at one point passed the €365,000 mark.

The report shows the average asking price for a one-bed apartment in Galway City is now €67,000; for a two-bed terraced it is €83,000; for a four-bed bungalow it is €219,000 and for a five-bed detached, the average is €307,000.

Conversely, the report found that parts of Dublin are seeing a rise in asking prices, of between 2.1% and 12.2%.

Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft.ie said: “It is likely that over the next 12-24 months, we may have to get used to the idea of prices rising in some places – particularly urban areas – while they fall elsewhere.

“In a sense, no-one is going to be happy; markets with falling prices are ones where sellers are frustrated and buyers are nervous about ‘catching the falling knife’.

“In rising markets, buyers will – just as they did before 2008 – feel like they have less time than they would like for what is one of the most important financial decisions they will make,” said Mr Lyons.

For more on this story, see today’s Connacht Sentinel