The rate of increase in residential property prices across the country continued to slow again in August.
Nationally, prices in August were up 0.9% on the same month in 2022, markedly weaker than the 1.6% increase in the year to July and the lowest rate of growth since November 2020.
Month on month, price inflation also weakened, rising by 0.3% in August compared to 0.4% in July, the latest data from the Central Statistics Office shows.
But despite the ongoing upward trend nationally, the fall in home prices in Dublin gathered pace, dropping by 1.9% in the 12 months to August, compared to 1.4% in the year to July.
This was sharpest annual rate of decline in Dublin residential property prices since October 2012.
"In the 12 months to August 2023, house prices in Dublin fell by 2.3% while apartment prices were down by 0.2%," said Niall Corkery, Statistician in the Prices Division of the Central Statistics Office.
"The highest house price growth in Dublin was in Fingal at 0.2%, while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown saw a decline of 3.9%," he added.
Outside of the capital, property prices rose by 3.1% though, with the cost of apartments rising by 1.8% and houses by 3.1% versus the same month a year ago.
"The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the South-West (Cork, Kerry) at 4.4%, while at the other end of the scale, the Midlands region (Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath) and the West region (Galway, Mayo, Roscommon) both saw a 2.1% rise," Mr Corkery said.
The CSO found that the median price of a home in the year to August was €320,000.
The lowest median price for a house was €159,750 in Longford, with the highest median price recorded in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at €634,919.
The least expensive Eircode area over the year to August was F45 "Castlerea", with a median price of €135,000, while A94 "Blackrock" was the most expensive with a median price of €735,000.
Overall in the month, 4,640 sales were recorded, up 8% on the same month last year.
Nationally residential property prices are now 2.8% above their highest level of the peak of the property boom in April 2007 and have increased 129.2% from the post-crash trough in early 2013.
The CSO data also shows that between April and June, prices of new dwellings were 11% up on the same three months of 2022.
That compares to an 11% increase in the first quarter.
Prices of existing homes in the second quarter were 0.6% higher than in the same period last year.
Commenting on today's CSO figures, Goodbody chief economist Dermot O'Leary said that over the past 12 months the higher priced areas in the capital have been the weakest.
He said it is likely that higher interest rates are having a bigger impact at the higher end of the market.
He also said that Central Bank figures show the first decline in loan demand for mortgages since the first quarter of 2022, with the level of interest rates being attributed to this trend for the first time the question was asked in the first quarter of 2015.
Mr O'Leary also noted that residential transactions continue to flatline and are flat in the year to date.
"Within this, new home transactions are up 2% year on year, with existing home transactions down 1%," he said.
"However, there has been differing trends over the summer months, with new home transactions down 10% yoy in the three months to August, relative to +2% yoy growth in second-hand transactions. This stems from Dublin where there was a particularly strong summer for sales in 2022," he added.
