Galway Bay fm newsroom - There's been a significant drop in the number of homes being sold across Galway.
Figures from the Residental Property Price Register show that the county suffered the biggest decline in home sales nationwide last year.
Research carried out by property website myhome.ie shows that Galway saw a sharp drop of almost 13 percent in home sales during 2016.
It's the worst figure in the country and is head and shoulders above Dublin, which recorded a drop of 2 percent, Cork at 1.3 percent, Kildare at 3 percent and Limerick at 9.4 percent.
While some counties - including Sligo, Waterford and Laois - experienced strong increases, nationally there was an average fall of 3.5 percent in the number of transactions.
Despite the drop, however, the total value of house sales rose by 7.4 percent - which reflects the strong demand driven by housing stock shortages.
According to the Irish Times, the most expensive property sold in Ireland last year was the Lyons Estate, former home of Ryanair founder Tony Ryan, which sold for 12 million euro.
