Two separate sets of figures show that house prices continued to fall in the third quarter of this year.
Property website Daft.ie said asking prices for homes around the country fell by an average of 3.7% during the third quarter. Figures from its rival MyHome.ie show that property prices fell by 3.9% in the third quarter of this year, bringing the fall for the year so far to 11%.
Daft.ie says asking prices have fallen 37% from their peak, while MyHome.ie puts the drop from peak levels at 32.4%.
MyHome.ie says the average asking price for a home nationally is now €280,000 compared with €291,000 three months ago and €323,000 12 months ago.
The Daft.ie report says that in Dublin, asking prices fell by 3.3% during the past three months, while in Cork and Waterford prices dropped by about 1.5%. It says prices in Galway and Limerick were largely static during the summer months, while outside the main cities, asking prices fell by an average of 4.3%.
Daft.ie economist Ronan Lyons said there was still a mismatch of supply and demand. 'Many would-be first-time buyers still lack either the confidence or the finance to enter the sales market. As a result, the total supply on the market still remains very high. The total stock on the market has been close to 60,000 for over two years now,' he said.
MyHome.ie says asking prices in Dublin overall fell by 4.3% in the three months, bringing the total fall over the last 12 months to just under 16%. It says prices in the capital have now fallen by 39% since their peak.
The survey shows that the prices for new homes fell by 1.9%, less than half the fall recorded by second-hand homes which fell by 4.3%. In both previous quarters new homes fell by substantially more than second hand homes.
The author of the report, Jean Goggin of DKM Economic Consultants, said the data suggested that the property price decline in 2010 was unlikely to be bigger than last year's fall. But she added that there would have to be an improvement in the labour market and the general economy before the property market picked up.
'Last year the overall decline was 14.5% and so far this year the annual decline is 13%. While this suggests some improvement in property market conditions it is clear that we have not yet reached the bottom of the market,' she said.
Ms Goggin said some improvement in the general economic climate next year could lead to a modest improvement in some segments of the housing market.
