Figures released today show that house prices continued to grow strongly in April, while growth in the first four months of this year was the strongest since 2000. The average price of a house in April was €291,678.
According to the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index, house prices overall rose by 1.4% in April, up slightly from March's 1.3% but in line with the average monthly growth over the past few months.
The annual rate of growth in April picked up to 13.2% from 12.1% in March. Prices are up 5% in the first four months of 2006, compared with a rise of just 1.3% in the same period last year.
Permanent TSB's Niall O'Grady said April's figures pointed to continued strong demand, though he still expected higher interest rates to reduce the rate of growth towards 10% by the end of 2006. He said the average price of a house would hit €300,000 in the next few months.
For first-time buyers, prices were up 1.5% in April, giving an annual growth rate of 14.7%. The equivalent figures for second-time buyers were 1.1% and 12.8%.
House prices in Dublin and outside Dublin both rose by 1.1%. The annual rates were 14% and 13% respectively. New and existing house prices rose by 1.4% and 0.8% respectively in April. Over the year, new houses were up 12.9%, while second-hand prices increased by 11%.
