House price growth falling sharply - report

A survey of house prices around the country shows that annual house price growth has slowed from 14% in April to 6.2% in July.

Buy-to-let investment yields in Ireland are at an historic low with the average yields now at 3.27%, according to the report by property website Daft.ie.

There are significant geographical differences in the slowdown - the average price of a property in Dublin, for example, is now €483,000, more than twice the average price of property in Ballina, Co Mayo which is €220,000.

The daft.ie report into the second quarter of the year shows a new record has been set in south county Dublin with the average price of a four-bed property now more than €1m. Limerick is the now best place to invest in buy-to-let property with an average yield of 4.07%.

Daft.ie boss Eamonn Fallon said: “Because our figures are based on advertised asking prices rather than on closing prices we can see trends as they happen. This may therefore be the first indication of a soft landing for the Irish property market.”

The low-density housing policy of the Dublin planners is also having an adverse effect on house prices, he added. “Use of land within the M50 is highly inefficient: In a land footprint the size of Berlin, we are housing less than one third of Berlin's four million population. Unfortunately this is where people want to live.”