Irish property prices increased last year despite the economic upheaval from the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest figures from the CSO show house and apartment prices rose by 2.2% year-on-year around the country.

Dublin prices increased by 1.2% in the year to December while they increased by 3.1% in the rest of the country.

Property prices

Austin Hughes, Chief Economist with KBC Bank said the Irish property market continues to surprise.

“First of all, the economy has done better than expected and secondly, we have had some curtailment of supply both because new building is down and also people are, maybe, reluctant to put their house on the market.

“We have also seen that people feel they need, maybe, bigger properties or to move away from their parents.”

In Dublin house prices increased by 0.2% while apartment prices surged by 5.1%.

South Dublin saw the highest growth overall at 3.2% while the inner city saw a decline of 1.8%.

Outside the capital house prices rose 3.1% while apartment prices rose 4%.

End of year surge

The increase was largely driven by a 0.8% rise in prices between November and December – the largest monthly rise since late 2018.

The monthly rise in Dublin was 0.4%, significantly lower than the 1.3% recorded in the rest of the country.

The end-of-year surge is notable as prices generally fall in the run-up to Christmas.

Meanwhile, the number of property transactions surged by 13.6% in December, the fastest increase since April 2018.