THE OFFICIAL RECORD of domestic property prices has recorded its first increase in almost five years.
The Residential Property Price Index, compiled each month by the Central Statistics Office, says prices in May were 0.2 per cent higher than they had been in April – the first time since August 2008 that prices have increased month-on-month.
On a annual basis, however, prices are still down by 15.3 per cent compared to where they stood 12 months ago – and are down by exactly half from their peak prices of early 2007.
House prices nationally were up by 0.1 per cent, dragged upward by the performance of houses in Dublin where prices were up by 0.5 per cent compared to April.
The price of apartments in the capital hit the overall average, however, with prices down by 1.6 per cent in one month – reversing a previous short-term trend where prices had risen by over 2 per cent in both March and April.
Apartments outside Dublin also had a torrid month, falling by 2.0 per cent, undoing the 2.1 per cent gain of April.
Homes outside Dublin increased by 0.1 per cent, but are still down by 2.4 per cent in the last quarter and by 14.2 per cent in the last year.
Overall, residential properties nationally are now worth 50 per cent of their peak values, while houses in Dublin remain 55 per cent off their peak  and apartments in the capital are off by 61 per cent.
Outside Dublin, properties are down by 47 per cent, while apartments – just like those in Dublin – are down by 61 per cent from their peak values of early 2007.
The CSO compiles the data based on mortgage drawdowns registered with Irish lenders, meaning the prices are calculated on the basis of agreed sale prices and not advertised asking prices.
The index is also designed to reflect the fluctuations in the type of properties sold at various times of the year.
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