Dublin average home price hits dizzying new high

Daft.ie’s latest report for July, August and September found that while house prices are not rising as quickly as the 7.6% rate last September, average prices are 44% above pre-Covid levels and 7.5% below their Celtic Tiger peak.

The property website noted that the average house price across the state is now just below €445,000, rising the fastest in Waterford city, where an 11% inflation rate has been recorded, compared to last September.

Rises in Dublin and Leinster were cooling fastest, with list prices in the capital up just 2.7% year-on-year and down from 7.2% a year previously, while the rest of Leinster recorded an even slower rate of just 2.1%.

Across the other major cities, the increase to September was less than 6% in Cork, Galway, and Limerick, and with the four cities (including Dublin) taken together, list prices were just above their Celtic Tiger peak.

Cork city saw listed prices up 5.7% year-on-year, with the average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached home reaching €431,000, compared to inflation of 5.8% and €376,000 for the same house type in Limerick city, and €424,000 for the same house type in Galway.

The slowdown in house price inflation was even sharper in transaction prices, with Daft.ie’s analysis showing that prices rose by just 0.8% in the year to September – the slowest rate of increase since 2020.

With asking prices now rising faster than transaction prices, the typical gap between the initial asking price and the ultimate sold price – a measure of ‘market heat’ – narrowed to 2.6% nationally, down from 6.8% a year ago and the smallest gap since 2023.

Report author Ronan Lyons, assistant professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin, said the softening in price pressures appears to reflect weaker demand rather than stronger supply.

On September 1, there were fewer than 13,800 second-hand homes for sale nationwide, up 12.5% on a year previously – although still only around half the pre-pandemic average of more than 26,000.

‘The clearest message from the third quarter [of 2026] is that house price inflation is easing – visible in both list prices and transaction prices,’ Mr Lyons said. ‘A year ago, the typical home ultimately sold for 6.8% more than the initial list price.

‘Now, with list prices rising faster than sale prices, that “market heat” measure has fallen to 2.6%. Ideally, price pressures would ease because second-hand supply has finally recovered after collapsing during COVID. However, for second-hand homes at least, the figures say otherwise: the flow of homes coming onto the market has been flat for three years.’

He added: ‘What has changed is how quickly those homes sell. Outside Dublin, at least some demand has switched to new homes but in Dublin, sales of both new and second-hand homes fell. That is the clearest sign of genuinely softer demand, and a signal to watch in the coming quarters.’

Fewer than 52,700 second-hand homes were listed in the year to August, the same as in each of the previous two years, while the number of listings leaving the market fell by 3%, meaning homes are staying on the market for longer.

Transaction volumes told a similar story: in the year to June, sales of second-hand homes fell by 1%, while sales of new homes rose by 13%. The national median price of a newly built home in the year to June 2026 was €448,000, up 3% year on year and the lowest in Monaghan at €337,000.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.