Taylor Scott International News
Residential property prices are increasing more than twice as fast outside Dublin than in the capital as people continue to be squeezed out of Ireland’s largest housing market, the latest index suggests. Indeed, prices in Dublin increased by 1% in October and are up 4.5% year on year but this is the lowest annual rate of inflation since the middle of 2013, according to the data from the Central Statistics Office. Outside of Dublin property prices were up 2.1% month on month and 10.7% year on year as the market catches up with that of the main city. It was the highest rise outside of Dublin since October 2014. A breakdown of the figures shows that Dublin house prices rose by 1% in October whilst Dublin apartment prices increased by 0.8%. However, it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series. It means that at a national level residential property prices were 33.5% lower than their peak level in 2007. Dublin house prices were 33% lower than their peak, Dublin apartment prices were 40.2% lower than their peak and Dublin residential property prices overall were 34.9% lower than their highest level. Outside of Dublin residential property prices were 36.3% lower than their highest level in 2007. Property consultants Savills said it is not surprised that house price growth in Dublin has slowed sharply. However John McCartney, director of Research at Savills, believes this is more due to a technical base effect than to any material slowdown in recent months. ‘In the month of October last year, Dublin prices rose by a staggering 3%. This feat would have to be repeated in October 2015 for the annual rate of price growth to hold at its current 6.5%. This is highly unlikely, and as a result, the annual growth rate will be dragged lower,’ he said. He warned against reading too much into the figures. ‘The slowdown will undoubtedly attract headlines. But it will really say more about what was happening in the market last year than what is going on today,’ he explained. ‘The frenzied activity we saw 12 months ago as buyers rushed to avail of tax breaks and more lenient lending practices has gone. But agents are reporting steady transactions and robust prices, particularly in the €400,000 to €650,000 price range where competition is hottest,’ he concluded, adding that Savills expects annual price growth by the end of the year in Dublin to be around 5%. Taylor Scott International
Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott
