Residential property prices rose on an annual basis by 8.6% in July - the fastest annual pace in three years - according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The figures also show that the number of property transactions is now back to pre-pandemic levels.
The data from the CSO shows that the Residential Property Price Index increased by 8.6% nationally in the year to July 2021, with prices in Dublin rising by 8.1% and prices outside Dublin rising by 9.1%.
In Dublin, houses rose by 9.2% while apartments rose by 3.7%.
South Dublin saw the biggest price rise of 11.2%. Outside of Dublin, house prices rose by 8.7% while apartments rose by 14.6%. Prices rose fastest in the Border region, with growth of 16.2%.
Nationally, prices have now risen 99% from their trough in 2013. Prices in Dublin are 106.8% higher than their low point in February 2012 while outside Dublin, prices have doubled since their low point in May 2013.
Measured on a quarterly basis, the price of new dwellings rose by 2.2% in the second quarter compared to the same quarter in 2020. This was down slightly on the annual rate recorded in the first quarter.
The rate of price increases of existing dwellings, however, doubled in the second quarter to 6.7% compared to the same time last year.
A total of 3,822 properties were purchased in July, an increase of 10% on June and an increase of 49.2% compared to July 2020. Existing homes accounted for just over 84% of transactions with new homes accounting for 16%.
The CSO said the volume of transactions from January to July now stands at 24,280, just marginally below the 24,416 properties purchased in the same period, pre-pandemic, in 2019.
First time buyers made up 32.3% of purchasers in July. Former owner-occupiers accounted for 53.5% while non-occupiers which include investors and public bodies accounted for 14.3%.
In the 12 months to July 2021, the lowest median price for a house was €120,000 in Longford, while the highest median price was €560,00 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
Commenting on the release, Viacheslav Voronovich, Statistician, said: “In the period before COVID-19, the annual growth in residential property prices fell gradually from 13.4% in April 2018 to 0.9% in March 2020. While price growth remained subdued throughout most of 2020, a trend of accelerating growth emerged in the latter part of the year and into 2021. Residential property prices increased by 2.2% annually in December 2020, before price growth rose to 8.6% in July 2021. In Dublin, residential property prices saw an increase of 8.1% in the year to July 2021, while property prices outside Dublin were 9.1% higher.
"COVID-19 restrictions impacted on the ability of households to buy dwellings. Households purchased 2,351 dwellings in April 2020, a reduction of 28.9% compared to the same month in 2019. In May 2020, households purchased 1,937 dwellings, a fall of 46.2% and the lowest monthly number of purchases since February 2014. Since the latter part of 2020, the number of dwellings purchased by households have returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. In the first seven months of 2021, there were 24,280 dwellings purchased by households at market prices. This compares to 24,416 for the first seven months of pre-pandemic 2019.
"Existing dwellings accounted for 3,221 (84.3%) of the dwelling purchases filed with the Revenue Commissioners in July 2021, the balance of 601 (15.7%) were new dwellings,
"Households paid a median price of €267,000 for a dwelling on the residential property market in the 12 months to July 2021. Within the Dublin region, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the highest median price (€560,000), while Fingal had the lowest (€362,125). The highest median prices outside of Dublin were in Wicklow (€370,000) and Kildare (€330,000), while the lowest price was in Longford (€120,000).”
