House price growth - Little hope of cost hike slowing down

Depending on which side of the property market one may be, yesterday's house price index published by the Permanent TSB/ESRI made for alarming and perplexing reading.

Nationally, the rate of house prices increased by 9.3% in 2005, a year in which the country's economic competitiveness had under-performed, according to an ESRI economist who also warned that Ireland was losing market share on world markets.

In the same breath, the Central Bank revealed that in December alone, private sector credit grew a record €6 billion, of which €3.5bn was due to an increase in residential mortgage lending.