Residential property prices fell for the second month in a row during May, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), while the level of activity in the market dropped again.

Prices nationwide had fallen by 0.1% during April, at the height of COVID-19 restrictions, and dropped by the same percentage in May as restrictions began to be eased.

The annual rate of price growth in May eased to 0.3% from 0.7% in April.

Dublin flat

During May, prices in Dublin fell by 0.1%, with house prices unchanged and apartment prices down 0.5%.

Overall, residential property prices in Dublin were unchanged compared with May 2019.

Elsewhere, the monthly figures were identical to Dublin’s: overall prices down 0.1%, with house prices flat and apartments 0.5% lower. Compared with a year earlier, however, prices outside the capital were up 0.7%.

Value and volume

The CSO figures show that the value of transactions in the housing market has almost halved since the pandemic restrictions began.

Residential property deals were worth just over €1 billion in March, before dropping to €658.7m in April and falling further to €535.2m in May.

The volume of home-buying also dropped sharply, with just 1,937 purchases recorded in May, compared with 2,351 in April and 3,598 in March.