Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!
Hopefully you manage to keep your own bad luck to a minimum today.
Indeed, you might not even be superstitious… But recent details released by property website Daft.ie suggests that plenty of Irish people must be.
Carrying out a regression analysis on data between 2006 and 2019, Daft discovered that houses with the number 13 on the door are no less than €4,700 cheaper than the Irish average, when compared against the Q2 2019 Daft.ie House Price Report.
If you think that’s just a coincidence, check this out: there are 14% fewer house-buying transactions made on Friday the 13th than regular Fridays. The typical Friday sees 275 properties transacted but a Friday that falls on the 13th sees on average just 235 transactions.
Ronan Lyons, Economist at Trinity College Dublin & author of The Daft.ie Report said: “While we think of the housing market as being something determined by big economic forces such as supply and demand, ultimately each property needs a buyer as well as a seller and both those parties are individuals with their own view of the world.”
And apparently, plenty of these parties really do believe that the number 13 is bad luck.
Raychel O’Connor, Communications Manager at Daft noted the benefits of this superstitious to the more skeptical buyers: A €5,000 savings “is the equivalent of having your legal fees and stamp duty paid for – which is something even the most superstitious people would find difficult to pass up.”
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