Commenting on today’s house price figures from the CSO, John McCartney, Director of Research at Savills said;

“Today’s figures confirm that the housing market in Dublin has cooled significantly with prices down around 1.1% in the year to date. This slowdown was probably inevitable given the very rapid price growth seen between April and October 2014, but it also reflects the impact of tighter mortgage lending rules which have been in place since February.”

Looking ahead McCartney said;

“Agents are reporting that there has been a definite cooling in the market. As the CSO index lags the market by three months this means the rally that has been seen in the second half of recent years is unlikely to materialise in 2015.  Therefore we expect price growth to be modest at best for the remainder of this year. Looking further ahead, the detailed demographic data show that Dublin’s population has picked up strongly as people follow the jobs.  Given sluggish house building, this will keep upward pressure on prices in the long run.  However, given affordability constraints, cash funded investors rather than owner-occupiers may move to the forefront in the next phase of the market.”