Slowdown in Dublin house prices

HOUSE prices in Dublin grew by less than 1% in the final three months of last year, but the average home in the city now costs just shy of €340,000.

New statistics from the estate agents Douglas Newman Good (DNG) reveal that in the fourth quarter of 2003 second-hand house prices rose by just 0.68% and by 9.45% for the year as a whole. In 2002 house prices in Dublin increased by 21%, though the outlook for this year indicates more sustainable levels of growth.

“Twelve months ago we forecast that house price inflation in Dublin would average out between 8% and 10% for 2003 and this proved to be the case,” DNG’s economist Paul Murgatroyd said yesterday.