Irish property prices on the rise again and now up 16.8% year on year

After two months of falling prices, property in Ireland is on the rise again with values up 0.9% across the country, according to the latest index.

Residential property prices are now up 16.8% on an annual basis and in Dublin they are 22.8% higher than March 2014 after a 1.1% monthly rise.

A breakdown of the figures from the Central Statistics Office shows that in Dublin house prices rose by 1% in March whilst apartment prices increased by 2.1%. However, a CSO spokesman pointed out that it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series.
Outside of Dublin residential property prices rose by 0.7% in March and prices are up 10.7% compared with March 2014.

Prices still need to catch up considerably before reaching anywhere near their peak levels of 2007. At national level prices were 38.2% lower than their peak level. Dublin house prices are 36.9% behind, apartment prices 42.2% lower than their peak and Dublin residential property prices overall were 38.7% lower than their highest level.

Outside of Dublin residential property prices are still 41.5% lower than their highest level in 2007.
However, the 16.8% overall year on year rise in property prices is the largest annual increase since the height of the property boom and confirms that the real estate market is heading in the right direction in a steady manner.

According to Alan McQuaid from Merrion Stockbrokers the monthly declines in house prices in the first two months of 2015 were probably weather related, with the lack of supply the key driver of prices.

‘Although the tighter lending restrictions imposed by the Central Bank and the end of the Capital Gain Tax property purchase incentive scheme may weigh negatively to some degree, it appears that house price growth may be stronger in 2015 than we previously envisaged,’ he explained.
He believes that the improving economy should sustain the house price recovery in the short term even with credit restrictions.