The Irish Times reports on the results of the widely publicised auction by Sherry FitzGerald McCreery where 20 properties were previously said to be up for sale. In the event 2 properties sold with one going for €212k against a price of €320k 12 months ago (an annual rate of decline of 34%, compared with the last ESRI/Permanent TSB rate of 18.5%) and another sold for €350k which the agent claimed at the height of the boom would have achieved €700k.
Nothing of any real statistical significance can be inferred from such a small sample, though the low number of sales (to be fair, the organisers said another 6 sold before the day and 2 after though their completion status and terms are not known) and the discount from 12 months ago would indicate the market is still in a very weak state and that prices continue to fall – the ESRI/Permanent TSB index being published in April 2010 might shed more light on the market.
