Residential property prices in Ireland continued to fall in August, dropping by 1.6% compared to July. This was a larger monthly decline than recorded in the first eight months of the year. The January-August average monthly fall was 1.4%.

The latest monthly figures, which were released by the Irish Central Statistics Office, show that the rate of decline thus far in 2011 has been more rapid than in 2010.

Residential property prices nationally are now more than 43% lower than their peak in September 2007. The figures give no reason to believe that the market has reached the bottom yet.

The comprehensive index, which was first published by the CSO earlier this year, gives detailed data by type of property (house/apartment) and by geographical area (Dublin/non-Dublin).

Two of the most marked trends in evidence since the property bubble burst in 2007 continued in August.

The first is that residential property prices in the capital have suffered more than those outside Dublin and the second is that apartment prices have fallen by more than those of houses. Both trends continued last month.

A large monthly decline of 3.8% in residential property prices was registered in Dublin in August. This was the second largest monthly decline on record and just below the 3.9% falls registered in March and April 2009 when the market was in free-fall.

When broken down by property type, house prices in Dublin were down 3.4% compared to July, while the price of apartments in the capital fell by 6%. The latter figure is by far the biggest monthly rate of contraction on record.
House prices in Dublin are now 48% lower than their peak in 2007, while those of apartments are 57% lower.