Inflation in the listed price of properties in Ireland is at a ten-year high, according to the latest report from Daft.ie.
The report, authored by Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, shows that in the year to March, house prices nationally rose by 12.3%, with the report warning that there are “simply too few homes on the market.”
Such a high rate of inflation hasn’t been seen in the market since the first quarter of 2015, during the spike in prices that prompted the Central Bank to introduce the mortgage market rules. The document published on Tuesday notes that in 2024, just 50,000 homes were put up for sale, putting the market much closer to its covid-era low than the pre-covid average.
The average national listing price for a home is currently €357,851, according to the report. The Midlands saw the highest rate of inflation – while prices in the three Ulster counties are just 6.5% higher than a year ago, in West Leinster (Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath), the rate of inflation is 16.5%.
€440,000 is the median price of a newly-built home in Dublin, up 10% on last year.
Nationally, the most expensive place to buy a home was South County Dublin (€718,098), South Dublin City (€505,718) while North County Dublin was slightly less expensive (€429,156).
Outside of Dublin, the average price of a home was highest in Wicklow (€454,929) and lowest in Leitrim (€212,424). Kildare was the second priciest destination to buy a home (€380,070) followed by Meath (€373,997), followed by Co Waterford (€339,276), Kilkenny (€330,683), Wexford (€323,721) and Co Cork (€325,999).
Leitrim was the second least expensive destination for homebuyers (€212,424), followed by Sligo (€224,399), Longford (€224,658) and Roscommon (€228,883).
Prof Lyons notes that inflation is “far more broadly based,” and that while inflation in Connacht-Ulster is lower than elsewhere (8.8%), the market is seeing double-digit increases in prices more or less across the board, with the Dublin inflation rate as of late June indistinguishable from the national average or from the ex-Dublin average (all 12.3%).
“The underlying reason is largely unchanged,” the housing report notes. “There are simply too few homes on the market at the moment. On top of an insufficient number of new homes being built, there are also not enough second-hand homes being traded.”
In the year to June 1st, there were a total of just over 51,000 second-hand homes put on the market. This compares to 2019, before all the disruption of covid, there were almost 67,000 homes put up for sale. It adds that a “sharp rise” in interest rates has weighed heavily on the market. In 2024, just 50,000 homes were put up for sale, putting the market much closer to its covid-era low than the pre-covid average.
“With such scarcity – and strong demand – comes acute pressure on prices,” the report details. Across the country as a whole, prices are now 40% higher than when covid19 first hit while in some parts of the country, prices are over 60% higher.
The report says that there are some “early and tentative” signs that conditions are turning. However, the volume of second-hand homes put up for sale in Dublin over the last 12 months didn’t fall further, as it did elsewhere. Instead, it grew slightly (by 3%).
Prof Lyons writes that while “ultimately, the market is still starved of supply,” thetotal number of homes for sale on June 1st was over 12,000, compared to below 9,300 on March 1st. The report for Q2 of 2025 says that whilst a healthy market is probably above 20,000, the latest figures do show a “step in the right direction.”
The quarterly report from Daft.ie, which surveys over 1,000 property market participants, noted a reduction in price growth expectations – with expectations of rising prices lower for Dublin than outside of Dublin. 39% of survey participants cited the need to save for a deposit as a key factor in delaying buying a home, with this being a bigger issue outside Dublin than in Dublin. Meanwhile, for an even greater number of respondents – almost half, or 50% – the lack of available homes was a factor in delaying home purchase, down from 62 per cent in the same period last year.
Across the country, the typical transaction price for a home in the second quarter of 2025 was 6.3% above the listed price. This is much higher than a year ago, when the gap nationally had been 3.5%, while two years ago, in Q2 2023, the typical transaction price was 1.1% above the listed price. Additionally, the second quarter of 2025 saw the highest level of market heat – as measured by the premium paid by buyers above the listed price – than at any other time since the start of 2010.
Prof Ronan Lyons, commenting, said: “At first glance, there is little to be cheery about in this latest Sales Report for those hoping to an end to Ireland’s chronic housing system woes. Inflation in the listed price of properties is at a ten-year high. In the year to March, the average listed price nationally rose by 12.3%. Such a rate hasn’t been seen in the market since the first quarter of 2015, during the spike in prices that prompted the Central Bank to introduce the mortgage market rules.
“Then, it was Dublin ‐ and its hinterland and the other cities ‐ that led price growth. In Munster (outside the cities), inflation was at just 2% at the end of 2014, compared to 20% in Dublin.
“This time, however, perhaps closer to the spike in inflation that occurred in 2017, it is far more broadly based. While inflation in Connacht-Ulster is lower than elsewhere (8.8%), the market is seeing double-digit increases in prices more or less across the board, with the Dublin inflation rate as of late June indistinguishable from the national average or from the ex-Dublin average (all 12.3%).
“The underlying reason is largely unchanged. There are simply too few homes on the market at the moment. On top of an insufficient number of new homes being built, there are also not enough second-hand homes being traded.”
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