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Home price growth slows to 6.1% in January – CSO
The pace of residential property price inflation slowed to an annual rate of 6.1% in January, compared to an annual rate of 7.7% in December, according to the latest Central Statistics Office figures.
Today’s figures also show a marked increase in property sales by investors last year.
The CSO said that home prices fell on a month-on-month basis for the first time in almost three years in January.
Property prices increases in Dublin slowed to an annual rate of 4.3% compared to 6% in December – falling for the fourth month in a row.
Prices outside Dublin were up 7.4% in January on an annual basis compared to 9.3% in December.
The price of new properties continued to rise while the pace of price increases in second-hand properties continued to slow.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the price of new homes was 10% higher than the fourth quarter of 2021. This is up on the 9.1% annual increase in the third quarter of last year.
Existing dwellings rose by 8.3% in the fourth quarter last year on an annual basis which was slower than the 12.6% recorded in the third quarter.
The number of homes purchased last January stood at 3,675. This was an increase of 4.4% on the number of properties bought in January 2021.
Existing dwellings made up 2,992 or just over 81% of properties sold, which was up 3.1% compared to a year ago. The 683 new homes sold comprised 18.6% of sales, up 10.5% on January 2022.
In the year to January, former owner-occupiers made up 53.8% of purchasers with first-time buyers making up 33.2%. Non-occupiers, which includes local authorities, housing bodies and investors, made up 13%.
New figures in this month’s release also show a marked increase in the volume and value of property sales by the non-household sector. This includes local authorities, housing bodies and investors.
The volume of sales in the category rose by 19.7% to 20,668 dwellings in 2022. This contrasts to an increase in sales 2021 compared to 2020 of just over 2%.
The value of sales in the non-household sector rose by 32.6% in 2022 to €7.6billion. This compares to an increase in the value of sales in 2021 of just 4.5% compared to 2020.
The data also shows that in 2022, 92.3% of the €4.6 billion spent buying residential properties by the non-household sector was by Irish registered institutions and companies, which would include local authorities.
Of the foreign investors, 84% were European, comprising 14.8% of the total purchases of the non-household sector last year.
Meanwhile, the median price of a property nationwide was €305,000 in January with the highest median price in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown at €630,000 and the lowest median price in Longford at €151,500.
Property prices nationally are now 2.5% above their high point in April 2007 during the boom. However, prices in Dublin are still 7.3% lower than their February 2007 peak.
Prices have risen nationally by 128.5% from their post-crash low in early 2013.
Today’s CSO figures also show that home prices fell on a month-on-month basis for the first time in almost three years in January.
House prices, which snapped back sharply after the Covid-19 pandemic briefly interrupted a period of sustained growth, were 0.6% lower in January than in December with prices falling in Dublin for the fourth month in a row.
Commenting on today’s figures, Goodbody’s chief economist Dermot O’Leary said that looking over the past three months, the most notable slowdown is in houses in Dublin City, where prices are falling at double-digit annualised rate.
He noted that prices are usually more volatile in the second-hand homes market, and this is proving to be the case again.
“The latest breakdown for the fourth quarter of 2022 shows new homes prices growing at a faster pace than second-hand. We expect a slowdown to just 3% in residential price inflation this year,” the economist added.
Article Source: Home price growth slows to 6.1% in January – CSO – Robert Shortt – RTE
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