The average price of a home in Dublin is now over €600,000, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The headline figure is 12 times the average full-time salary in the State (which is about €50,000) and reflects the huge affordability challenge facing buyers. The CSO confirmed the average price paid for a home nationally in October was €429,212, up from €382,510 in the same month last year.
The latest figures come in the wake of a warning last week by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) that Irish house prices were overvalued by up to 10 per cent and that an increasing number of households were carrying “elevated” levels of mortgage debt.
In its winter economic bulletin, the institute said the acceleration in house prices this year had led to concerns about the sustainability of such increases and whether it would lead to “a painful correction” similar to the one that followed the 2008 financial crisis.
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Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin described the latest figures as “very depressing but not surprising”.
“What’s particularly concerning is the rate of inflation in the second-hand home market [11 per cent] and the acceleration of prices in Dublin,” Mr Ó Broin said, noting that further European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate cuts forecast for next year were likely to fuel further price growth.
He also raised concern about Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s plans to expand their Help to Buy and First Home schemes, describing the schemes as “inflationary”.
“If all of these pressures and policies continue to bear down, it is bad news for people who want to buy their own home, particularly in Dublin,” he said.
With latest official figures showing prices nationally rising at an annual rate of almost 10 per cent, the CSO confirmed the average price paid for a home in the capital in October was €603,453, up from €542,271 a year earlier.
The agency’s latest residential property price index, published on Wednesday, indicated prices nationally increased by 9.7 per cent in the year to October, down from a rate of 10 per cent the previous month.
Prices in Dublin rose at a rate of 10.4 per cent year on year, with values outside the capital increasing by 9.2 per cent.
With supply still a problem and interest rates on a downward curve, demand appears to be driving prices forward. A fall in the supply of second-hand properties available for sale is also seen as a factor.
The CSO’s latest snapshot of the market comes in advance of a predicted slowdown in new home completions this year which are expected to come in slightly below last year’s total of 33,000. Housing output is, however, expected to increase again in 2025 and 2026.
The CSO said households paid a median or midpoint price of €350,000 for a residential property in the 12 months to October. The highest median price paid for a dwelling was €645,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
There was also a pickup in transactions with 4,881 purchases by households filed with Revenue in October, up 17.1 per cent on the previous month. The total value of transactions filed in October was €2.1 billion.
Goodbody economist Dermot O’Leary said, “2024 was a year of strong price appreciation in the Irish housing market amid ongoing strong demand and a growing housing deficit.”
The biggest contributor to the growth in new home transactions had been first-time buyers (FTBs) with transactions up 14 per cent year on year, he said.
“Pent-up demand, a strong labour market and Government supports for owner-occupation for FTBs are all playing a role here,” Mr O’Leary said.
Robert Gardiner of estate agent Auctioneera said: “Underlying the high property prices is the continued lack of supply of homes to the market. Demand is high, with attendances at viewings across the country consistently busy.”
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