The scale of Ireland's financial crisis is best revealed in one of the country's longstanding obsessions: property.

A report released this week shows that asking prices for houses in Dublin city are now 62 percent below their peak in 2007.

Compiled by the sales and rental website Daft.ie, the study shows that even the current asking prices plummeted by almost 10 percent in the final three months of 2011.

Half of properties listed in the city now sell within five months the study shows, but the other half will struggle to find buyers.

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In Leinster, one of Ireland's four provinces and the area where property frequently command the highest prices, house prices are now estimated to be listed at more than 50 percent below their previous peak.

Prices throughout the province Munster in the south are more than 40 percent below their peak levels. Under one-third of properties listed in Munster now find a buyer within three months, and only a further one in six find a buyer within a year.


According to a report in the Irish Examiner, between September and December Dublin saw an average fall in asking prices of 8.9 percent while Cork city saw a drop of 5.4 percent. The report said that the largest fall occurred in Galway city, where asking prices were discounted by more than 14 percent in just three months.

According to the website MyHome.ie Irish asking prices nationally are now down by 43 percent compared to the peak in 2006. Dublin prices are down 50 percent over the same period.