Property prices flat in April as higher mortgage rates hit buyers

Property prices are falling back. Photo: Aidan Crawley

Charlie Weston

PROPERTY prices were flat in April, new figures show.

Prices did not change in the month after falling in January, February and March, the Central Statistics Office said.

In the month of April prices in Dublin fell for the sixth month in a row.

Nationally prices were up 3.6pc when compared with a year ago.

The pace of increase, on an annualised basis, has slowed markedly over the past few months.

Successive mortgage rate rises across all the lenders are making it more expensive for buyers.

And lenders are stress-testing potential buyers on the basis that lending rates will rise even more.

On an annualised basis prices in Dublin rose by 1pc and prices outside Dublin were up by 5.6pc, the CSO said.

CSO statistician Viacheslav Voronovich said: “Residential property prices rose by 3.6pc in the 12 months to April 2023, down from 4.0pc in the year to March 2023.

“In Dublin, residential property prices saw an increase of 1.0pc, while property prices outside Dublin were 5.6pc higher than a year earlier.”

New home prices are rising faster than second-hand home prices.

This is because new home prices are being boosted by the Help-To-Buy and the First Home Government schemes.

Prices of new dwellings in the first three months of this year were 11.1pc higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2022.

Prices of existing dwellings in the first quarter were 3.5pc higher than in corresponding quarter of 2022.

The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the Midlands at 6.6pc.

At the other end of the scale, the Border region saw a 4.7pc rise.

In April 2023, 3,262 home purchases were filed with the Revenue Commissioners.

This was a decrease of 5.3pc compared with the 3,446 purchases in April last year.

Households paid a median, or mid-point, price of €313,000 for a residential property in the 12 months to April this year.

The lowest median price paid for a dwelling was €160,000 in Longford, while the highest was €634,998 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The most expensive Eircode area over the 12 months to April 2023 was Blackrock with a median price of €748,000.

Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, had the least expensive prices at €127,500, the CSO said.

The national index is now 1.7pc above its highest level at the peak of the property boom in April 2007.

Dublin residential property prices are 9.1pc lower than their February 2007 peak.

Prices in the Rest of Ireland are 2.5pc higher than their May 2007 peak.