A LONG-AWAITED REGISTER of residential property prices in Ireland has been launched this afternoon.
The register, which can be seen at propertypriceregister.ie, provides the price, address and date of sale on residential properties purchased in Ireland since 1 January 2010.
It includes details for both cash sales and sales which involved mortgages. The Property Services Regulatory Authority said that the site will be updated on a regular basis with information published within a month of the date of a sale.
A note on the website says that the register is not intended to be a property price index and it does not give details such as property size. Instead, the note says that the site is designed to “provide, on an ongoing basis, accurate prices of residential properties purchased at a particular date”.
Users can search the register by county, by year, by month and by address to see house prices. Information can also be downloaded directly from the register database.
There have been calls for a database of national property prices for several years in order to provide open information on a notoriously secretive area.
The register was produced by the Property Services Regulatory Authority, which was set up by Justice Minister Alan Shatter earlier this year to regulate estate agents and management agents.
Speaking after the launch of the site today, the Minister highlighted the problems with the lack of transparency in the housing market.
“In recent years, because of the steep downturn in the property market, it has been difficult to get accurate information on property prices,” Alan Shatter said.
This uncertainty has led to a lack of investor confidence and has contributed to stagnation in the property market, particularly among first time buyers. The publication of the Register should help to remove some of this uncertainty, restore some confidence in the property market and provide transparency in residential property sale prices.
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