An Irish financial services company is to launching a product which will allow home buyers insure against a drop in property prices.
IFG's product would see a portion of the cost of buying a home put in trust. This money would be refunded to the buyer if the value of the home dropped below the purchase price.
Property prices have been falling since 2006 and many experts have been wondering how buyers can be enticed back to the moribund market.
Today financial services company IFG will lauch a product which will allow home buyers insure against a drop in prices.
If, for instance, a consumer buys a home for €200,000, 10% of the amount paid could be held in trust for a number of years. If the value of the home drops by 10% buy the end of that period, the money held in trust would be returned to the buyer.
The product will not result in additional costs for the buyer but instead the vendor could stand to lose if prices fall.
Whether the price of the property has fallen would be judged on the basis of the Central Statistics Office property price survey.
The latest CSO figures showed house prices have falled by 47% in Dublin since its House Price Index started in 2007 and by 40% across the country.
