House price growth in Dublin has slowed sharply, with new figures indicating that demand may be weakening as buyers face high asking prices and continued economic uncertainty.
Prices increased by just 0.8% in the year to September, marking the slowest annual rate of growth since 2020, according to the latest Daft Sales Report.
The figures contrast with asking prices, which rose by 3% nationally over the same period. Although that represents roughly half the rate of inflation recorded a year earlier, average asking prices remain 44% above pre-pandemic levels and 7.5% below their Celtic Tiger-era peak.
The national average asking price for all property types stood at just under €445,000 during the third quarter of 2026.
However, asking prices are now increasing more quickly than completed transaction prices. As a result, the gap between the initial asking price and the eventual sale price has narrowed considerably.
The typical difference now stands at 2.6% nationally, down from 6.8% a year ago and representing the smallest gap recorded since 2023.
Daft report author Ronan Lyons said the latest figures appeared to point towards weaker demand rather than an increase in the supply of homes available for sale.
“Ideally, price pressures would ease because second-hand supply has finally recovered after collapsing during Covid,” Lyons said.
However, he said the latest figures did not indicate a significant recovery in the supply of second-hand properties.
“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.”
Lyons said the key change had been the speed at which properties were selling, with demand also shifting towards newly built homes in some areas.
“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.”
He described the decline in sales in Dublin as the “clearest sign of genuinely softer demand”, saying it would be an important trend to monitor in the coming quarters.
The slowdown has been particularly evident in Dublin and the surrounding region.
Asking prices in Dublin were 2.7% higher in September than they were a year earlier, while prices in the rest of Leinster increased by 2.1%.
Elsewhere, asking prices rose by just under 6% in Cork, Galway and Limerick cities over the same period. Waterford recorded a significantly higher annual increase of 11%.
The differences between the cities are also reflected in the cost of a typical three-bedroom semi-detached home.
In Dublin, the average price for such a property was €635,000, compared with €431,000 in Cork.
The average price stood at €618,000 in Galway city, €376,000 in Limerick city and €313,000 in Waterford.
The latest figures suggest that while asking prices remain substantially higher than before the pandemic, the pace at which properties are ultimately changing hands has begun to moderate, particularly in Dublin.
