On Monday 9 June, the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute (IAVI) is chairing a meeting of all major vested interests in the property market including the National Consumers Association, the Departments of Environment; Justice and Enterprise; the National Property Services Regulatory Authority, the Law Society, and other professional organisations in the College of Physicians, Dublin.

The purpose of the meeting is to resolve the crisis over the publication of house and land price sales. The meeting takes place as a result of the National Consumer Agency’s concerns following an Irish Times report that some estate agents had supplied inaccurate property sale prices for publication.

Led by Mr. Edward Carey, President of the IAVI, the invitees will join in a round table discussion on the issues surrounding the current data protection legislation, which requires that prices can only be disclosed with the consent of both parties involved with the transaction.

Mr Carey explained “It is in the best interests of everyone involved in the property market, from professionals to consumers to government departments, that accurate market information is transparently available. Auctioneers however, face a difficulty as they have been caught between two competing and contradictory pieces of legislation”.

On the one hand, the NCA demands that we provide very specific information about property prices. On the other, the Data Protection Act prohibits us from releasing that information without the consent of both seller and buyer. This consent is not always available, as many private citizens do not want that information to become public. The challenge for us at this meeting today is to resolve that conflict,“ he said,

The IAVI is in favour of the compilation of a national publicly accessible database of all house and land prices achieved. In order to facilitate this, Mr Carey proposes that the data protection legislation be amended to provide for the publication of prices achieved without requiring the consent of the parties to the transaction.

“I believe that it is totally impractical to suggest that the consent of both parties be secured for each and every transaction before evidence can be presented.”

“Why does Ireland treat individual property prices as confidential data when other countries treat it as public information and make it freely available by way of national data banks?,” he added.

The IAVI believes that a speedy resolution to these issues is needed.

“We hope that our initiative will be driven forward by one of the government departments involved in today’s discussion forum. We feel that the proper operation of the property market is hindered by a strict interpretation of the Data Protection Act.”

Representatives attending this half-day session include the Departments of Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the National Property Services Regulatory Authority; the National Consumer Agency; the Consumers’ Association of Ireland; Fine Gael; the Law Society; the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; and the three other professional bodies in the sector: the Society of Chartered Surveyors, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers and the Irish Property and Facilities Management Association.

Ends

Carina O'Neill
Bracken Public Relations
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