Country Guides Country Guide: Ireland

The Irish property market at a glance:

• National house prices have increased by 270 per cent over the past ten years – compared to a total rise of just 30 per cent in the consumer price index.
• The average cost of a house in 1996 was €75,000. Ten years later (2005) the average cost had increased to €280,000.
• On average national prices rose by of 14.9 per cent each year for those ten years.
• In one year (1998) average national prices grew by 30 per cent.
• Ten years ago the average difference between buying a house in Dublin or outside of Dublin was €10,000. Today that figures has grown to €130,000.
• A third of the current total number of houses in Ireland (547,000 houses – known as 'the housing stock') was built in the last ten years.
• The value of all the houses in Ireland is estimated at some €412 billion – a four-fold increase on the figure ten years ago.
• The number of house completions has risen each year, from 33,700 (1996) to 81,000 (2005).

Source: permanent tsb/ESRI House Price Index