Property remains in the woods with recovery slow to take hold.

In the year to February, residential property prices at a national level, fell by 2.6%.

Irish property market still in the woods

This compares with an annual rate of decline of 3.3% in January and a decline of 17.8% recorded in the twelve months to February 2012.

Residential property prices fell by 1.5% in the month of February. This compares with a decrease of 0.6% recorded in January and a decline of 2.2% recorded in February of last year.

In Dublin residential property prices fell by 0.3% in February but were 3.0% higher than a year ago. Dublin house prices fell by 1.0% in the month but were 2.5% higher compared to a year earlier. Dublin apartment prices were 7.8% higher when compared with the same month of 2012. See Tables 6, 7 and 8. However, it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series.

The price of residential properties in the Rest of Ireland (i.e. excluding Dublin) fell by 2.1% in February compared with a decline of 3.0% in February last year. Prices were 6.1% lower than in February 2012.