House prices in Louth and on the border skyrocket by 16.2% since last July

New stats unveiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday show a massive increase in the cost of a house on the border, with prices increasing by 16.2% since last July.

The Residential Property Price Index from the CSO shows that house prices nationally have increased by 8.9% on July 2020.

The price increase on houses in the border region was the most significant at 16.2%, with houses in the South-East having the second most significant increase at 11%.

Dublin also saw significant house price increases, with an increase in prices of 9.2%.

South Dublin saw the highest increase, with prices rising by 11.2%, with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, Dublin City and Fingal prices rising by 9.8%, 9.4% and 6.5% respectively.

The average price of a house in Dundalk is now €240,588, according to the CSO's records.

Across the country, there were 3,822 dwelling purchases by households registered with Revenue in July 2021.

Of these purchases, existing buildings accounted for 3,221 (84.3%) of those purchases, compared to 601 (15.7%) which were new builds.

Statistician with the CSO, Viacheslav Voronovich, said: “While price growth remained subdued throughout most of 2020, a trend of accelerating growth emerged in the latter part of the year and into 2021.”

“Residential property prices increased by 2.2% annually in December 2020, before price growth rose to 8.6% in July 2021.”

He also added that Covid-19 restrictions impacted on peoples ability to buy houses.

“COVID-19 restrictions impacted on the ability of households to buy dwellings. Households purchased 2,351 dwellings in April 2020, a reduction of 28.9% compared to the same month in 2019.

“Since the latter part of 2020, the number of dwellings purchased by households have returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. 

“In the first seven months of 2021, there were 24,280 dwellings purchased by households at market prices. This compares to 24,416 for the first seven months of pre-pandemic 2019.”