The trend of accelerating residential property prices in Ireland that was ever present throughout 2021 has carried over into the start of this year.

The most recent official data on house prices showed that prices rose by 0.9% in January from December, with the year-on-year rate accelerating to 14.8% from 14.3%. In January 2021, house prices were rising by just 2.5% in the year. 

Also noticeable in the data was the fact that prices outside of Dublin are rising at a faster pace than in the capital. While this has been happening gradually since 2015, over the last six months, the differential in yearly growth rates between non-Dublin and Dublin has been widening. ‘This probably reflects to some extent the boost to demand for housing outside of Dublin from the transition to hybrid working’, stated the report in the Irish Examiner. 

However, the primary driver of the upward pressure on prices is the continuing shortfall in supply. Last year, some 20,500 new residential units came on stream, according to the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO), which is broadly similar to the figure for the prior two years, while demand in Ireland is estimated to be around 30,000 units per annum.