House price inflation is growing at its fastest rate since 2000 according to the latest edition of the permanent tsb / ESRI house price index.
The index shows that prices have now grown by approximately 1 per cent each month since July 2005. In the first two months of 2006 prices have risen by 2.2 per cent, compared to just 0.6 per cent in 2005.
For first time buyers prices have risen by 13.5 per cent since February 2005 down from the 13.9 percent year-on-year figure recorded in January 2006 and as such the only category to experience a drop.
Looking specifically at February, the price of houses nationally rose by 1 per cent during the month, down marginally from the rate of 1.2 per cent recorded in each of the previous four months back to October last year though still over three times the rate in February 2005 (0.3 per cent).
The average price paid for a house nationally in February was €284,096, up over €6,000 on that recorded for December 2005.
Niall O'Grady, head of marketing at permanent tsb said the strong growth seen at the end of 2005 had carried over into the new year. He said the market is being driven by confidence in the economic outlook and the imminent first tranche of SSIAs.
"Going forward, we expect that this will be balanced somewhat by the recent ECB rate increase," he said.
