Property price rises pick up in October due to supply shortages

The pace of price rises nationally has picked up as supply shortages bite.

Prices nationally increased by 2.3pc in the year to October 2023, the Central Statistics Office said.

This is up from a rise of 1.4pc in the year to September.

In Dublin they decreased by 0.6pc, with prices outside Dublin up by 4.5pc.

It is the sixth month in a row that property prices in the Dublin area have fallen.

Higher interest rates are hitting prices in the capital, particularly for more expensive homes.

The European Central Bank has hiked interest rates 10 times in the last year and a half.

Strong demand from first-time buyers is ensuring prices keep rising across the State.

They are managing to keep buying in numbers due to two State supports, the Help-To-Buy scheme and the First Home scheme.

Buyers who avail of the new First Home shared equity scheme, along with the Help-To-Buy tax refund, are managing to buy €320,000 homes with mortgages of just €240,000. One commentator said this was acting like “rocket-fuel” to propel people on to the property market. But it may also be fuelling continued rising house prices.

Residential property prices of new dwellings in the third quarter of this year were 10.4pc higher than in the same quarter last year, the CSO said.

Prices of existing dwellings in the third quarter of 2023 were 1pc lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

In October some 4,604 dwelling purchases by households at market prices were filed with the Revenue Commissioners.

This is up by 7.2pc when compared with the 4,296 purchases in October last year.

The median price of a dwelling purchased in the 12 months to October was €323,000.

The most expensive Eircode area over the year to October was A94 'Blackrock' with a median price of €730,00.

At the other end of the scale, the lowest median price for a house in the year to October was €160,000 in Longford.

The least expensive Eircode was 'Castlerea' had the least expensive price of €135,000.

The highest median price was €630,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

CSO statistician Niall Corkerysaid: “Residential property prices rose by 2.3pc in the 12 months to October 2023, up from 1.4pc in the year to September 2023.

“In Dublin, residential property prices saw a decrease of 0.6pc, while property prices outside Dublin were 4.5pc higher in October 2023 than a year earlier.”

The national property price index is now 5.1pc above its highest level at the peak of the property boom in April 2007.

Dublin residential property prices are 6.3pc lower than their February 2007 peak.