HOUSE PRICES CONTINUED to fall in the month of April, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

The statistics showed that the CSO’s Residential Property Price index fell by around one per cent for the month, with house prices then 12.2 per cent lower than they had been for the same time last year.

The drop compares with an annual rate of decline of 11.9 per cent in March, though the rate of decline is less than it had been in April 2010 when it reached 13.7 per cent.

House prices in Dublin fell by 0.7 per cent, and were 13 per cent lower than a year ago. They are now over 46 per cent off their peak from early 2007, though apartments have shed 53 per cent of their prices from the peak.

Prices fell by 1.3 per cent in the rest of Ireland, and are now 36 per cent off their peak, giving a national average of 40 per cent.

The CSO’s index is calculated on mortgage drawdowns based on a three-month rolling average, meaning the current stats incorporate property dealings made in the aftermath of the EU-IMF bailout and Budget 2011.

Analysis by KBC Bank said that in that light, even steeper drops could have been expected.

“The likelihood is that this softness may not become evident in this index for another couple of months when early 2011 transactions are fully captured,” the bank said in a note.