Average home has €252,000 price tag

THE cost of buying a house has risen by €18,000 since the start of the year, new figures reveal, with the average home now selling for over €252,000.

The monthly Permanent TSB house price index shows that a house in Dublin costs €330,000 and €222,077 in the rest of the country.

For first-time buyers there was some good news - the rate of increase in house prices has slowed considerably. Prices grew by 7.8% in the nine months to end September. This compares to growth of 9.4% over the same period in 2003.