Asking prices for houses nationwide up by 2.1% in Q1.

Research from property website Myhome.ie indicates that property prices are showing renewed signs of momentum.

Asking prices nationally increased by 2.1% in the first three months of 2016, while prices in Dublin rose by 0.9%.

This continues a trend evident for some time whereby property price increases outside of Dublin are outpacing those in the capital, which some attribute to the Central Bank's lending restrictions.

Dublin and the commuter counties accounted for three quarters of the transactions exceeding the €220,000 threshold at which the higher deposit rule kicks in.

Davy's chief economist Conall MacCoille, who authored today's report, said a key factor supporting house prices this year will be a tighter housing market.

He noted that the stock of properties listed for sale on the MyHome website in the first quarter fell to a fresh low of 21,650, down 6% on the year.

"Despite popular opinion, the immediate impact of the Central Bank lending rules was to make it easier to buy as sellers anticipated the slowdown in Dublin house prices and decided to bring their properties to the market in 2015," he stated.

"This won’t be repeated this year while housing supply in the capital is likely to pick up less sharply through the summer months," he added.

Today's report show that the the mix adjusted asking price for new sales nationally is €220,000 - an increase of €5,000 on the fourth quarter of 2015.

The corresponding figure for Dublin is €315,000 - an increase of €2,600.

For the entire stock of properties listed for sale on the website the national mix adjusted figure is €208,000 while in Dublin the figure is €290,000.

source: RTE 04/04/2016