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DUBLIN, Jan 30 (Reuters) - House prices in Ireland fell 9.1 percent last year compared with a drop of 7.3 percent in 2007, the permanent tsb/ESRI house price index showed on Friday, predicting prices would shed a further 10 percent in 2009.
The survey said that if average inflation of 4.1 percent in 2008 was taken into account this was equivalent to a decline in real prices of 13.2 percent.
In December, house prices declined by 0.9 percent compared to a fall of 0.5 percent in November, the index showed.
Niall O'Grady, general manager of business strategy at permanent tsb said that after a decade of exceptional growth Irish house prices had entered a period of retrenchment and he did not expect any significant change in the down trend.
"(We) are guiding therefore to a further decline in average national prices in the order of 10 percent during 2009 with some significant variations to that in different areas," he said.
He noted people would point to examples of house prices falling more significantly than December's figures indicated but said the survey provided an "objective measurement".
Anecdotal evidence would suggest prices have as much as halved in some areas of Dublin and along the capital's "commuter belt" where the credit crunch has led to the abandonment of a number of half-built developments.
Data from Ireland's central bank on Friday showed growth in residential mortgage lending fell to its slowest pace since 1986 in December.
The bank said consumers might be waiting to see where prices were going before entering the market and also noted tighter lending criteria.
The average price paid for a house in Ireland at the end of 2008 was 261,573 euros ($342,000) -- down from 287,887 at the end of 2007 and 310,632 at the end of 2006.
The average price paid for a house in Dublin and outside Dublin in December 2008 was 351,096 and 223,984 euros respectively.
(Reporting by Kevin Smith; Editing by Carmel Crimmins)