Official figures show that growth in residential-property prices continued to slow in February, with the annual increase falling to 5%.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that prices of homes dropped by 0.4% during the month – the second monthly fall in a row – bringing the annual increase to its lowest level since April 2021.

The annual rate of increase had topped 15% in February last year.

The figures showed that households paid a median price of €310,000 for a home in the 12 months to February 2023.

Increase bigger outside Dublin

In Dublin, residential-property prices recorded an annual increase of 3.2%, while property prices outside Dublin were 6.4% higher than a year earlier.

In Dublin, house prices increased by 3% and apartment prices were up by 4% over the 12-month period. The highest house-price growth in Dublin was in South Dublin at 9.3%, while Dublin City saw a decline of 0.5%.

Outside Dublin, house prices were up by 6.6% and apartment prices rose at an annual rate of 3.3%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the Border, at 9%.

During February, 3,351 dwelling purchases by households were filed with Revenue – a decrease of 6.5% compared with the same month last year.

There was an increase of just under 4% in the number of new homes bought, while the figure for existing homes fell by 8.4%. Existing homes, however, still accounted for 83% of purchases during February.