Ireland's property prices up 10.7 pct in six months

Latest official figures released on Monday showed that in the year to June Ireland's residential property prices rose by 10.7 percent at a national level.

This is the twenty-fifth annual increase in a row but down from the year-on-year rises of 13.8 percent in May and 15.8 percent in April, according to the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Meanwhile, prices were up just 0.1 percent in June following a 0.5 percent rise in May.

The CSO said that outside of Dublin residential property prices rose by 0.4 percent in June, adding that compared to a year earlier, prices were up 9.7 percent.

At national level, residential property prices at the end of June were 37.4 percent lower than their peak level in 2007, according to the CSO figures.

Dublin residential property prices overall were 38.4 percent lower than their highest level, while outside of the capital residential property prices were 40.5 percent lower than their highest level in 2007, the CSO said.

Alan McQuaid, economist with the Dublin-headquartered Merrion Stockbrokers, said a continuation of the monthly price rises seen in the second quarter over the remainder of 2015 would result in just a very low single digit annual increase come December.

"Still, the generally better economic backdrop, particularly in relation to the labour market, should see house prices remaining higher on a year-on-year basis for a while yet even with credit restrictions and increased planning permissions," he said.

"There was an average increase of 12.9 percent in house prices in 2014, up from 1.8 percent in 2013. Taking all factors into consideration, we are now looking for an average increase of around 8 percent for 2015," he added. Endit