PROPERTY-price inflation continued to ease in December as higher mortgage rates and the cost-of-living crisis mean the ability of buyers to purchase has been hit hard.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said prices across the State were up 7.8pc in December when compared with the same month a year earlier.

The pace of increases was down from 8.5pc in November and from a high of 15.1pc in March last year.

In the month of December prices were up 0.3pc. This is marginally higher than the 0.2pc recorded in both October and November.

In Dublin, property prices rose by 6.1pc in the year to December, down from 7pc in the previous month.

Prices in the rest of the country were up 9.3pc annually in the last month of last year.

The west of the country saw the largest rise with an increase of almost 15pc in the year.

Border counties saw prices up by 11.5pc.

Many of these prices reflect deals from as far back as last summer as they are based on filings of purchases lodged with Revenue, and there is a time lag element to this.

The rate of property-price of inflation is starting to come down as higher household costs and rising mortgage rates take some of the steam out of the market.

But despite the cooling in property price growth the property industry here is still predicting positive growth in prices this year.

Some 5,213 properties were bought by households in December, the CSO said, citing Revenue filings.

This is up from 5,170 purchases in December 2021.

Households paid a median, or mid-point, price of €305,000 for a residential property in the year to last December.

The lowest median price paid for a dwelling was €152,000 in Longford, while the highest was €625,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The most expensive Eircode areas over the 12 months to December 2022 were A41 Ballybougha and A94 Blackrock, both with a median price of €750,000.

The least expensive Eircode was F35 Ballyhaunis at €126,000.

Prices of new homes in the fourth quarter of 2022 were 10pc higher than in the three-month period of 2021.

For second-hand homes prices were 8.3pc higher in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same quarter of 2021.

The national index has now reached the value of 169, which is 3.3 percentage points above its highest level at the peak of the property boom in April 2007.

Dublin residential property prices are 6.2 percentage points lower than their February 2007 peak.

Property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 3 percentage points higher than their May 2007 peak.

Property prices nationally have increased by 130.3% from their trough in early 2013. Dublin residential property prices have risen by 132.2% from their February 2012 low, whilst residential property prices in the Rest of Ireland are 136.9% higher than at the trough, which was in May 2013.

The European Central Bank has increased its main lending rate from 0pc to 3pc since last July, in an attempt to dampen inflation.

ECB president Christine Lagarde has indicated that another 0.5 percentage point move is planned for next month.