THERE WERE fresh indications yesterday that the property market in the Republic may have stabilised with the Central Statistics Office reporting a slight price increase in house prices last month, the third consecutive month property prices across the State have increased.
The increases have been most pronounced in Dublin which last month saw its largest price jump in nearly six years.
Across the Republic, prices rose by 0.9 per cent in September. The increase comes on top of a price rise of 0.5 per cent which the CSO recorded in August.
In September 2011 prices fell by 1.5 per cent.
While house prices may have started to climb slowly over the summer, they are still down 9.6 per cent in the year to September and down 14.3 per cent in the 12 months to September 2011.
The largest increases last month were recorded in Dublin where property prices rose by 2.4 per cent, the biggest monthly gain since August 2006.
Despite the increase, they are still 9.8 per cent lower than they were a year ago and residential property prices in Dublin are now 56 per cent lower than at their highest level in February 2007.
Outside the capital, the price of homes was down an average of 0.1 per cent in September.
The CSO figures are based on mortgages but do not take into account cash transactions.