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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
# Plateau
Don't look yet but house prices actually FELL a little bit last month
But compared to last year they’re still way up.
IRISH PROPERTY PRICES in January recorded the largest monthly fall for almost three years.
It’s only the fifth time in the last 24 months that monthly prices have fallen.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the average price paid for a property last month was 1.4% less than in December.
This is twice the previous drop recorded in March 2014, the last time prices actually fell.
Despite the slowdown, the scale of increase means that prices in January were still 15.5% higher than they were last year.
The tempering of prices last month was felt both in Dublin and the rest of the country.
Dublin’s property prices were down by even more than the national average after recording a drop of 1.9%. Elsewhere, there was a fall of 0.9%.
The only sub-index to actually record an increase last month was for apartments in Dublin which were valued at 0.9% higher than in December.
The CSO points out, however, that the relatively few purchases of Dublin apartments last month makes that figure perhaps less accurate.
Despite last month fall, the below graph shows that property prices have grown strongly in all areas and dwellings over the last 12 months.
Nationwide houses have grown at the slowest rate, 9.2%, while Dublin apartments have jumped by 22.3%.
Read: Manual workers were 140% more likely to die than professionals during the boom >
Read: What would Albert Einstein say about Ireland’s housing crisis? >
