Online classified ads website DoneDeal has said the value of goods traded on its platform amounted to €4.5 billion last year as consumers became more interested in trading second hand goods.

Some 486,452 unique sellers placed 1.89 million ads on its site in 2014 with an average of 157,000 ads per month, it said.

DoneDeal which was established in 2005 and is the country’s largest online classified ads website, said the number of ads placed on its platform has risen by 215 per cent since 2010.

The average price of item sold via the platform is €159, down 45 per cent from the €288 recorded in January 2010.

The website said it receives in the region of 600,000 visitors on a daily basis with the number of new accounts being created rising by 32 per cent from 2013 to 486,452.

As many as 57 per cent of all visits to the platform are done via mobile, DoneDeal said.

New categories of goods sold have increased 190 per cent from 50 in January 2010 to 145 in December 2014.

The website’s largest category is its motors section, which accounts for 48 per cent of all activity on DoneDeal. More than 837,000 ads were placed in the section in 2014 with an advertised value of over €3.9 billion. Last year saw an increase of almost 8 per cent in motor ads published from 2013 with the value of cars sold totalling €2.3 billion.

A report carried out on behalf of DoneDeal by economist David McWilliams estimates that the website’s second hand market is valued at over €300 million per month.