PROPERTY PRICES WERE rising at a rate of 6.1% nationally in the 12 months to February, up from 5.4% in the year to January. 

The new figures by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show an acceleration in the rate of property price growth and has prompted criticism opposition politicians. 

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said first-time buyers are competing for a dwindling stock of homes.

“The significant gap between new and second-hand house prices is clearly being driven by inflationary demand side schemes such as so-called Help to Buy and the high-risk First Home Scheme,” he said.

“To make matters worse, the government continues to miss their whole inadequate affordable home targets.”

The government fell 2,680 homes shy of their social and affordable housing targets for last year.

House prices now higher than the peak of the Celtic Tiger boom.

“The consequence of failing to deliver an adequate volume of affordable homes, combined with inflationary developer subsidies, is driving house price inflation,” said Ó Broin.

Figures show that in February 2024, there were 3,327 homes purchased at market prices, down by 0.7% when compared with the 3,351 purchases in February 2023.

The median price of a house was €330,000.

The lowest median price by area was €165,000 in Leitrim, while the highest median price was €620,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

In the 12 months to February 2024, house prices in Dublin rose by 5.9% while apartment prices rose by 4.5%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in Dublin City at 7.7% while Fingal saw a rise of 4.5%.

Outside Dublin, house prices were up by 6.3% and apartment prices rose by 9.1%.

The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) at 10.8%, while at the other end of the scale, border counties saw a 1.3% rise.

The most expensive Eircode area over the period was A94 ‘Blackrock’ with a median price of €715,025, while F45 ‘Castlerea’ had the least expensive price of €135,000.” 

The CSO has an Interactive App where you can explore the median property price by Eircode area.