House prices outside of Dublin grew by 9.6% while apartment prices also increased by 5.3% in 2022, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The west of the country – Galway, Mayo, Roscommon – saw the largest rise in house prices with average residential property prices showing a jump of 14.9% in values.
While in contrast, the southeast of the country – Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford – reported a 6.7% increase in house prices.
Viacheslav Voronovich from the CSO said: “Residential property prices rose by 7.8% in the 12 months to December 2022, down from 8.5% in the year to November 2022, and from the high values of 15.1% in the 12 months to February and March 2022.
“In Dublin, residential property prices saw an increase of 6%, while property prices outside Dublin were 9.3% higher than a year earlier.”
According to the CSO the median price for a house in Ireland over the 12 months to December 2022 was €305,000.
Latest research suggests the lowest median price paid for a home last year was €152,000 in Longford, while the highest was €625,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
However, according to the CSO, the most expensive Eircode areas in 2022 were A41 Ballyboughal and A94 Blackrock, which both had a median price of €750,000, while F35 Ballyhaunis was the least expensive at €126,000.
The CSO figures suggest a cooling in residential property prices which the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) said in general rings true with the experience of auctioneers throughout the country.
However, Pat Davitt, IPAV’s chief executive, said some country agents have also reported ” a lot of interest from Dublin buyers” which in turn is delivering stronger prices outside of the greater Dublin region.
“Some of this is being driven by people selling at the top in the Dublin market and buying elsewhere and catching better prices outside of Dublin, where that arrangement suits their plans,” the IPAV chief executive said.
He described some areas such as Longford and Ballyhaunis as “very accessible for first-time buyers in particular”.
But Davitt also said the fact that securing a mortgage had become more difficult and “rapidly increasing interest rates” also had to be factored into the house-buying landscape at this time.