Property Market Cools

House Prices Fall For First Time In A Decade

Ireland's property market is finally beginning to show signs of a 'cool down' and some house prices have fallen for the first time in a decade, according to property experts.

However they insisted there was no prospect of a property crash and instead pointing to Finance Minister, Brian Cowen's prediction of a 'soft landing' for property prices earlier this year.

Alan Cooke, Chief Executive of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute said the slow down in prices was definite.

"The soft landing seems to be happening," he said.

"It won't happen across the entire market in one fell swoop and it wont hit geographically at the same time.

"It'll affect different people in different sectors first, but it is only a question of time until it levels out".

There has been concern from both the government and economists about the pace of Ireland's property market in recent months.

In some instances an average 3 bedroom semi in Dublin which cost 500,000 Euro in the summer of 2005 was selling for 700,000 Euro six months later.

Economists believe such rises are unsustainable.

One factor in the slow down of house prices has been the recent interest rate hikes levied by the European Central Bank.

The ECB also intends raising interest rates by a further .5% by September in a bid to control inflation in the Euro Zone.

The practical impact of the interest rate hikes means that people cannot pay so much for houses.

Despite the high cost of Ireland's property market the country has one of the highest owner/occupier ratios in Europe.

In Ireland almost 78% of people own their own houses.