Irish property prices increased again in value in July, marking the second month in the past three months that prices have increased, according to the Central Statistical Office (CSO).

The annual data also shows the rate of decline consistently slowing since a high of -17.8% in February, down to -16.3% in March then -15.3% in May, -14.4% in June and finally, down by 13.6% year on year in July.

Property prices increased by 0.2% in May and July, but fell by 1.1% in June. However, in the last three months prices have fallen just 0.7%, making it the best quarterly performance for some time.

There appears to be signs that prices may fall further in Dublin though as residential property prices fell by 0.3% in July and were 16.6% lower than a year ago. Dublin house prices decreased by 0.2% in the month but were 16.7% lower compared to a year earlier while apartment prices were 19.6% lower when compared with the same month of 2011.