Irish property recovery is underway

Photo: Karen_O'D

The Irish property recovery is underway, according to the Central Statistics Office, with prices rising across the country.

Residential property prices jumped 6.4 per cent nationally in December 2013 year-on-year, the CSO reports, a faster pace of increase than the 5.6 per cent recorded in November 2013. It is a complete turnaround from the decline of 4.5 per cent recorded in December 2012 year-on-year, a sign that the market's recovery is fully underway.

Dublin leads the growth, though, with prices up 0.3 per cent in December month-on-month and 15.7 per cent higher year-on-year. Apartment prices in the city rose more than the house prices, with values surging 20.8 per cent year-on-year, although a low number of sales means that the data is more volatile.

Outside of Dublin, residential real estate values edged up 0.1 per cent, far lower than the city, but still an improvement compared to December 2012, when prices remained the same month-on-month.

While recovery is now spreading across the country, there is still a long way for house prices to climb: house prices in Dublin, for example, are still 47.4 per cent below their peak value in 2007, while the national average price is 46.8 per cent lower.