A LEADING city auctioneer has claimed that the rate of decline in house prices in Galway has begun to slow down, with the property market showing signs of stabilising – following a freefall that has slashed prices by up to 40% over the past two years.

And significantly, the selling agent claims that fewer people are putting their homes on the market.

Tony Kavanagh of Sherry Fitzgerald Kavanagh based the claims on research carried out during the second quarter of this year, which showed prices dropped by 3.8%, down from a 7.3% drop during the first three months of the year.

Those figures are slightly less that the national average drops of 5.2% in the second quarter and 8.3% in the first quarter.

The research also found that the months of July and August have shown evidence of further increase in viewing levels and many more sale transactions actually happening.

Also, fewer vendors are putting their houses on the market, which has led to the stabilisation of stock levels.

The stock of available secondhand properties has stabilised and has indeed...