Property prices - Surely we learnt the hard lessons?

We are it seems on the cusp of another destructive round of soaring and bizarre house prices in Dublin. There are hints that this fevered process might spread outside the Pale but it is, for the moment at least, at its most apparent in the capital.

A survey from estate agents Douglas Newman Good found that Dublin house prices, despite a still-struggling economy, are rising by €5,000 a month. DNG recorded that prices in the capital rose by 23% in the last year as demand far exceeds supply. The figures also indicated that average prices in Dublin rose by 8.9% during the first quarter of this year, the seventh consecutive quarterly rise. Residential property values are still 50% below their peak but there has been a 36% increase on average since the early 2012 low point.

Yesterday’s decision by the European Central Bank to prolong historically low interest rates will do little, if anything, to slow this growth; if anything they will encourage it.