53% PROPERTY CRASH

Dublin’s property market has now fallen 53% since its peak – a new European record for the worst property crash of modern times, according to The Sunday Times, which quotes new figures released by Sherry Fitzgerald.

The rest of Ireland has fallen by 48.1% since the highs of 2006 and because prices are still going down, “they could yet rival Dubai for the dubious honour of the worst property crash of the past 40 years,” the newspaper states. Prices in Dubai have fallen a putative 60% from their peak in 2008.

“While other Irish property-price monitors are based on asking prices, the continued absence of certified state figures and the irrelevance of bank-supplied property-value statistics due to the dearth of mortgages being sold mean that the Sherry Fitzgerald figures are likely to be Ireland’s most accurate,” writes the newspaper’s property editor, Mark Keenan.