Annual house price inflation eased slightly to 5.5% in July from 5.6% in June, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.
The CSO noted that this marked the lowest annual increase since January 2024, when the annual increase was 5.4%.
But housing prices rose by the fastest monthly rate in a year, rising by 0.8% month-on-month, the CSO added.
Residential property price inflation has been gradually moderating from the most recent year-on-year peak of 10.1% in August 2024.
The CSO said that Dublin residential property prices rose by 4.4%, while residential property prices outside Dublin were 6.4% higher in July of this year compared with the same time last year.
Today’s figures show that house prices in Dublin rose by 3.7% while apartment prices increased by 6.8%.
The highest house price growth in Dublin was recorded in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at 6%, while Dublin City saw a rise of 2.3%.
Outside of Dublin, house prices grew by 6.2%, and apartment prices rose by 9.2%, the CSO said.
The region outside of Dublin with the largest growth in housing prices was the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) at 11%. At the other end of the scale, the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) saw a rise of 4.4%.
The CSO said that households paid a median or mid-point price of €399,999 for a residential property in July. The highest median price paid for a home was €684,411 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, while the lowest was €200,000 in Longford.
Outside of Dublin, the most expensive region over the last 12 months was Wicklow, with a median price of €475,000, followed by Kildare, which had a median price of €450,000.
Meanwhile, the most expensive Eircode area was A94 (Blackrock, Dublin) with a median price of €850,500, while F45 (Castlerea, Roscommon) had the cheapest median price of €158,500.
Today’s figures show that the total value of homes filed with Revenue stood at €2.17 billion in July, up 5.3% on July last year and a jump of 19.1% increase compared with the €1.82 billion worth of purchases in June.
Revenue data also reveals that 2,035 first-time buyer purchases filed in July, an increase of 8.5% on the 1,876 filed the same time last year. These purchases were made up of 878 new homes and 1,157 existing homes.
Trevor Grant, the chairperson of the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors (AIMA), said that while slight, the ongoing let-up in house price growth will be welcome news to the many first-time buyers struggling to get onto the property ladder.
But he added that for a lot of aspiring buyers, this let-up will not be enough to afford them the opportunity to buy their first home by the end of this year.
“While the rate of house price growth is easing, let’s not forget that house prices are still rising and inflation for housing is higher than it is in many other areas,” he said.
“It’s important to note too that today’s house price figures are for July – which is traditionally a quiet time for house sale. The ongoing easing in the rate of house price growth could be short-lived now we’re into the autumn – as September and October are often busy months for house sales,” he said.
“September has proved to be very busy so far, with mortgage brokers reporting high level of inquiries on the ground from interested buyers,” he stated.
“We estimate that house price inflation will be around 4% this year,” he added.
