CENTRAL STATISTICS OFFICE (CSO) figures released today show that the prices of residential properties rose by 7.5% in the 12 months to April.

It follows the release of the Central Bank’s new quarterly bulletin on the state of the economy, which forecasts housing completions to hit approximately 32,500 this year.

That figure falls well short of the Government’s stated target of 41,000 for 2025 which Housing Minister James Browne described today as “not realistic”.

This is a decrease on the numbers contained in its last forecast in March, when it said it expected housing completions of 35,000, 40,000 and 44,000 in the three years.

The Central Bank now predicts 37,500 homes to be constructed next year, and 41,500 in 2027.

Today’s CSO figures reveal that prices for individual properties outside of Dublin went up 8.6% in the year to April just gone, with the capital seeing a 6.2% rise.

The border region is where the country has seen the largest increase, specifically in house prices, averaging 11.8%.

When it comes to apartment prices, the biggest price jump of 6.5% was recorded in Dublin, ahead of the national apartment price rise of 8.6%, excluding Dublin.

The region with the highest median property price in the country is unsurprisingly in Dublin too – specifically Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown – where is stands at €670,000, while the least expensive part of Dublin was South Dublin, with a median price of €455,000.

The national median property price is €365,000, while the country’s lowest median price was located in Co Leitrim at €185,000.

Figures from Revenue show that there was a 10% increase in the number of first-time buyer purchases made in April of this year versus the same time last year as 1,458 first-time buyer purchases two months ago.

Rachel McGovern of Brokers Ireland commented on the significance of today’s CSO figures.

“As a consequence of high prices, those who need mortgages to buy homes are taking on ever larger levels of debt,” she said.

“There are a number of different factors at play now that didn’t apply over a decade ago, such as the fact that many borrowers have higher levels of savings, be they of their own or with assistance from family; many are also on higher incomes but we’re also in a more volatile global situation where it’s more difficult than ever to predict how interest rates will go into the future.”

She added: “The severely dysfunctional housing market needs to be treated by policymakers for the emergency it is.”