Ireland tops house price drop league with Dubai
Wednesday May 27 2009
Dubai recorded the most dramatic drop in house prices of 40pc in the first quarter of the year, according to a new survey.
But the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said yesterday that the percentage slump in prices here is up there with Dubai, despite Ireland coming in 10th worst in the Knight Frank Global House Price Survey with a 10pc drop.
Hubert Fitzpatrick, director of housing and planning at the CIF, said that the Irish figures in the survey were out of date.
"This doesn't reflect actual transactions on the ground. From peak to the current level house prices are down 40pc to 50pc in Ireland."
Singapore followed Dubai in the survey with a drop of 16.2pc.
The best-performing markets were Thailand, with a 2.7pc uplift in values, followed by Israel and Switzerland.
Nick Barnes, head of international research at Knight Frank, said: "The world's housing markets remain under intense pressure with little real evidence of any of the hope for 'green shoots' and even the improvement in performance shown in some countries in the last quarter may yet turn out to be a false dawn, according to some commentators.
"Recent projections from the OECD do little to promote a more optimistic viewpoint -- GDP growth is forecast to drop by an average 4.3pc in the OECD area in 2009 while by the end of 2010 unemployment rates in many countries will reach double figures for the first time since the early 1990s."
He added that the most widespread economic recession since the 1930s continued to batter housing markets across the globe.
- Ailish O'Hora
