THE price of new houses rose by an average of over 14 per cent to £73,523 in the year to the end of March, according to the quarterly housing figures from the Department of the Environment.

Secondhand house prices rose by an average of almost 18 per cent to over £72,000.

In the Dublin area, which has shown the greatest growth, new house prices rose an average of 17.3 per cent to just over £84,000. Average secondhand house prices in Dublin were almost 21 per cent higher from the first quarter of 1996 at £89,067.

The figures also show that the first quarter of 1997 was a record period for house completions, with almost 8,100 new houses completed compared to just over 7,200 in the corresponding quarter in 1996 - an increase of 12 per cent. There was, however, a 19 per cent fall in houses completed by local authorities, while private house completions were up 15 per cent.

Lending figures from the report show that building societies advanced £216 million in the first quarter of this year - split almost evenly between new and secondhand houses. This is well down on the £266 million lent in the fourth quarter of 1996, but over 53 per cent higher than the £141 million lent in the first quarter of 1996.

Bank mortgage lending totalled £324 million in the first quarter of 1997, compared to £310 million in the same period in 1996, a rise of just 4 per cent.

The figures from the Department of the Environment show that the market for endowment mortgages has continued to collapse, with the traditional annuity mortgage accounting from 95.7 per cent of the almost 12,000 mortgages in the first half compared to just 4.3 per cent for endowments.

The collapse in the endowment mortgage market is shown by the fact that these insurance linked products, which accounted for over 39 per cent of mortgages in 1992, fell to less than 20 per cent in 1993, 11 per cent in 1994, 7.3 per cent in 1995 and 4.9 per cent in 1996.

Fixed rate mortgages continue to be the most popular with borrowers. Over 61 per cent opted for fixed rate products in the first quarter, continuing the growing trend for the security of the fixed rate.

Over the five quarters since the beginning of 1996, the numbers opting for fixed rate mortgages has increased from 50 per cent to 55 per cent to 58 per cent to 60 per cent to the 61 per cent in the most recent quarter.