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Irish house prices even lower than reported - new database will include house sold for cash

Nosy neighbors will soon get the goods on their next door's prices

By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 8:04 AM
Updated Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 11:15 AM

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Irish house prices may be even lower than recorded
Irish house prices may be even lower than recorded
Photo by Google Images


The effect of the banking collapse on the Irish property market is finally coming into focus - and thanks to a new database, the public will learn just how much local properties have been selling for.

Punters who have long suspected that Irish house prices are even lower than reported will be able to satisfy their curiosity when the true prices are unveiled within the coming months.

The new property database, due to go online by June, will provide the date of the sales and the final selling price on all properties sold since January 2010 and the effort is being hailed as an attempt by the Irish government to revive the collapsed property market.

Until now the best estimates have been produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which compile their lists based on the mortgages taken out - but these statistics do not include cash sales.

To that end, the Irish public has had to rely solely on the word of estate agents and property websites, both notoriously subjective appraisers.

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Now the new organization, titled the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA), will obtain the information on the final selling price of houses directly from the Revenue department, the most exacting appraisers on record. By law, the Revenue obtains the value of every house sold from solicitors within 30 days of the transaction to determine whether stamp duty is owed.

Chief executive of PSRA Tom Lynch told the Herald that when it came to valuations the Irish property market was 'a little bit of a lottery.' The new database would give people more accurate information about every property in the country for the first time, he said.

Critics of the new index are worried that it could potentially be used by people curious to see the price of their neighbor's just sold property. Lynch admits that is a potential abuse that has some grounds, because it is not possible for individuals to 'opt out' of the House Price Register since legislation passed last November mandates that all sales prices to be published by law. Even the prices of houses which were sold prior to January 2010 will eventually become available on the index.

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4 Comments

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Towngate | Mar 29, 2012, 04:39 AM EDT
Only those with something to hide will not welcome this badly needed development. The despicable Irish 'Gombeen Men' will be quaking in their boots! ~ ( as they try to wriggle a way round the Regulations.)

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feeblefrog | Mar 03, 2012, 11:31 PM EST
I'm amazed that in Ireland, they don't already have a database with the sale prices listed. In the U.S. it's very easy to find out what something sold for and who owns it. Must have been very difficult to set an asking price.

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johnymac60 | Feb 22, 2012, 10:27 AM EST
"notoriously subjective appraisers", Aye, or in the case of estate agents - a bunch of damn liars pushing prices up to line their own pockets. Ireland needs Zillow. The benefits of a informed public, able to independently estimate the value of a property (and in the process avoiding being gouged) far outweighs the privacy issue of knowing your neighbours house value.

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LoyalCitizen | Feb 21, 2012, 08:49 AM EST
Its going to be interesting how this turns out..........I suspect that the under counter deals will be nothing but a fabrication and like most things in a fraudulent Ireland there are some people who will get around the system.

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