The pace of property price rises in Ireland has picked up. In the year to April, residential property prices at a national level increased by 13%. This compares with an increase of 12.6% in the year to March, according to the Central Statistics Office. In April last year national property prices were rising at a rate of 9.5% on an annual basis.

In Dublin residential property prices increased by 12.5% in the year to April, while in the rest of Ireland prices increased by 13.6% during the same period.

But the mid-west region of Ireland showed the strongest price growth, with a surge of almost 19%. Local economists are predicting that the rate of annual property price growth in Ireland will remain in the double-digits for the foreseeable future.