House prices on the rise

Residential property prices increased by 6.6% in the year to the end of December, according to the Central Statistics Office.

That was a slight increase on the annualised figure in November when prices increased by 6.5%.

It compares to an increase of 16.3% recorded in the twelve months to December 2014.

The monthly increase in December was of the order of 0.5%, slightly stronger than the 0.4% increase in December of the previous year. It also marked a reversal of the 0.5% fall in November 2015.

Property price growth outside of Dublin continues to outpace that in the capital.

In Dublin, property prices fell by 0.5% in December and were 2.6% higher than a year ago.

Property prices in the rest of the country, excluding Dublin, increased by 1.2% in the month of December and were 10.2% higher than a year before.

Today's figures coincide with new data from the Banking and Payments Federation which show that €352m of mortgage approvals were made in December, down 15.7% on the year.