Prices up 311% since 1995

FALLING interest rates is the single ever-present factor fuelling Ireland’s phenomenal house price inflation, pushing the price of the ubiquitous semi-detached up by 311% from a modest 87,612 in 1995 to 360,000 today.

Irish home buyers in the 1980s and early 90s had to contend with interest rates of close to 15% and sometimes more but after devaluation of the Irish pound in 1993, quickly followed by entry into the EMU, interest rates started to fall.

As the Celtic Tiger began to purr in 1995 house prices which only increased modestly for the year started to take-off.