Ireland’s property crash has hit young first-time buyers the hardest – with many now struggling to hang onto their homes.

The buyers who paid sky-high prices at the height of the Celtic Tiger property boom are now paying the price.

New analysis suggests the first-time buyers have been the worst affected since prices started to drop in 2007.

The Irish Examiner reports that the survey for the website daft.ie suggests that the biggest drop since the peak is in the value of one-bed and two-bed apartments and smaller houses.

The comprehensive survey involved asking prices in more than 4,500 areas of the country in terms of house-type and size.

The daft.ie findings suggest:

* The price of an average one-bed apartment fell 62% since 2007 from $300,000 to $110,000
 
* Two-bed terraced houses are 59% cheaper, down from $350,000 to $140,000
 
* Average three-bed semi- detached is down 55% from $440,000 to $200,000
 
* Four-bed bungalow prices have fallen 50% from $653,000 to $330,000
 
* Five-bed detached houses are, on average, 48% cheaper after dropping from $800,000 to $415,000
 
Commenting on the report, Daft.ie economist Ronan Lyons said: “There’s going to be weak demand for one and two-beds into the future as people look to buy.

“As they think about having a family into the future, they’re going to be looking to buy something that will do them for 15, 20 or 30 years.

“There isn’t really an investor market at the moment, and the people coming five or 10 years after those who bought for the first time in the boom aren’t really interested in a one or two-bed home.”

Daft also found that asking prices stabilised in the second quarter of 2012 in Dublin, parts of the South-East and Cork City.

However, prices listed for homes outside the main cities fell between eight and 13 per cent.

Figures from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office last week also showed the first monthly increase in house sale prices since 2007 in May.