Irish Property prices are not showing signs of slowing down. The latest figures have indicated that the price growth accelerated in June, with prices now growing at a rate of 11.6% on an annual basis.

The CSO (Central Statistics Office) have reported that in the year up to June, residential Irish property prices rose by 11.6%, compared with an increase of 11.1% in the year to May and an increase of 5.5% in the 12 months to June 2016.

• Average market price paid by households for a dwelling was €258,544, or €401,890 in Dublin.
• Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was the most expensive area to buy a house in Ireland, with an average price of €580,902.
• Co Longford, the least expensive county in which to buy a house, with an average price of €93,912.

Dublin’s rate of growth was slightly lower at 11.1%, with house prices increasing at a slightly higher rate of 11.2%, and apartments advancing by 10.6%. The highest house price growth was in south Dublin, at 11.8%. Across the city, house prices rose by just 5.4% in Fingal.

Elsewhere, property prices rose by 11.8% in the year to June, with the southeast region showing the fastest growth rate of 16.7%. Price growth was also significant in the midlands (14.8%) and southwest (13.2%). Price growth in the midwest region on the other hand was a more muted 8.4%.

Conall MacCoille, economist with Davy Stockbrokers, attributes the gains to the robust economic recovery, looser credit conditions and the announcement of the “help-to-buy” scheme.

Recovery in flow?

The stats would point to a continued recovery in Irish property prices. House prices across Ireland are now just 29% lower than the highest level reached in 2007, while Dublin prices are 29.9% lower than their February 2007 peak, and property prices outside of Dublin are 34.6% lower than their May 2007 peak.

The figures also point to a jump in transaction figures. In June, for example, 3,441 house purchases were filed with the Revenue Commissioners, up by 8.3% increase compared with June 2016, but down by 0.4% compared with May 2017, when 3,456 purchases were filed. The total value of the market, based on transactions filed in June, was €916 million.

The help-to-buy scheme, which offers first-time buyers 5% off the purchase price of a new home, is clearly driving growth in the sales of new homes. Indeed the number of new homes being sold increased by 19.3% in the year to June 2017, compared with an increase of just 6.4% for the number of existing homes.

Revisions

The latest figures from the CSO incorporate a revision back to January 2010, to include additional categories of new dwellings, such as sites with associated building agreements; unitary contracts, which provide for a single bundled price for both the land and the construction; as well as residual transactions, which may be filed too late to be included in the original index calculations .