The pace of property price growth has slowed to its lowest level since July 2013 with prices up 3.1 per cent nationally in the year to April.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office shows the pace of growth slowed from March, when prices were up 3.8 per cent, and are down considerably from April 2018 when prices rose 13.3 per cent in the 12 months prior.
In Dublin, growth in house prices was stagnant, with no change whatsoever when the entire county was considered as one. But growth in apartment prices of 2.2 per cent accounted for the 0.5 per cent growth across the entire region.
Nevertheless, there were some pockets of growth with house prices up 4 per cent in South Dublin. In Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, house prices actually fell over the course of the year by 1.5 per cent.
In the rest of Ireland excluding Dublin, residential property prices were 5.6 per cent higher in the year with house prices up 5.8 per cent and apartment prices up 5.9 per cent.
Amongst that cohort of areas, the mid-east saw the smallest rise at 1.5 per cent while the border region saw significant growth of 11.4 per cent.
Across the country, prices remain 18.5 per cent off their 2007 peak with Dublin prices lower by 22.5 per cent.
Nevertheless, the recovery has been significant and property prices nationally have increase almost 82 per cent from their 2013 trough. Dublin prices are up 91.9 per cent while residential property prices across the rest of the country have risen by almost 80 per cent.
Transaction value
Some 3,306 transactions were filed with Revenue in April, representing a 4.3 per cent increase compared to the same month in 2018. The total value of those transactions was €950 million, indicating an average purchase price of €287,454.
Resulting from the slow growth in new houses coming to market, existing property sales accounted for 81.8 per cent of the sales. The balance of 603 new properties sold represented an 8.6 per cent decrease compared to April 2018.
Individuals trading up accounted for more than 52 per cent of sales with first time buyers accounting for 13,685 property purchases in the year to April. Investors accounted for just 17.1 per cent. In the month, the number of first time buyers did rise by 5.7 per cent compared to the same month in 2018.
As to where prices were highest, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown’s median price of €537,000 in the month while Fingal had the lowest in the county at €331,887.
Outside Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare had the highest median prices at €315,000 and €295,000 respectively while the lowest was €100,000 in Longford and Leitrim.
By eircode, A94 Blackrock had the highest median prices of €620,000 while the least expensive eircode in the capital was D10 Dublin 10 with a median price of €232,500. A63 Greystones had the highest median price outside of Dublin at €442,500 while H23 Clones had the lowest at €65,000.
