Property prices in Dublin and the surrounding region are barely rising, according to a new report which suggests that weaker buyer demand, rather than a rise in the number of homes for sale, is cooling the Irish housing market.
The Daft.ie Sales Report for the third quarter of 2026, published today, found that the average asking price for homes nationally rose by 3% in the year to September. That is roughly half the 5.8% rate recorded a year earlier. Nationally, the average asking price between July and September was just under €445,000. That is 44% above pre-Covid levels but still 7.5% below the Celtic Tiger peak.
Actual selling prices are rising even more slowly. An analysis of transactions registered on the Property Price Register found prices rose by only 0.8% in the year to September, the slowest increase since 2020. The typical gap between a home’s asking price and its final sale price also shrank to 2.6%, down from 6.8% a year ago and the smallest gap since 2023. In simple terms, buyers are no longer paying well above the asking price, and sellers have less power to push prices up.
The slowdown is most visible in and around Dublin. Asking prices in the capital were 2.7% higher in September than a year earlier, while the rest of Leinster, which includes much of the commuter belt, saw a rise of 2.1%. Elsewhere, price growth was faster. Prices rose by just under 6% in Cork, Galway and Limerick cities, and by 11% in Waterford. Areas outside the cities in Munster and Connacht-Ulster also recorded larger percentage increases.
The average asking price of a three-bed semi-detached house is now €635,000 in Dublin (up 2.7%), €618,000 in Galway City (up 5.8%), €431,000 in Cork City (up 5.7%), €376,000 in Limerick City (up 5.8%) and €313,000 in Waterford City (up 11%).
The report’s author, Ronan Lyons, Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said the “clearest message” from the quarter is that house price inflation is easing. He noted that this would ideally happen because supply of second-hand homes had recovered after collapsing during Covid, but said the figures do not show that. “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,” he said.
Supply is improving only slightly. At the start of September, just under 13,800 second-hand homes were for sale nationwide, up 12.5% on a year earlier. However, this is still only around half the pre-pandemic norm of more than 26,000. Just under 52,700 second-hand homes were listed in the year to August, the same as in each of the previous two years, meaning the flow of homes coming onto the market has been flat for three years.
What has changed is how long homes take to sell. The number of listings leaving the market fell by 3%, meaning properties are staying on the market for longer. “Outside Dublin, at least some demand has switched to new homes, but in Dublin, sales of both new and second-hand homes fell,” Mr Lyons said. “That is the clearest sign of genuinely softer demand, and a signal to watch in the coming quarters.”
The figures come at a time when many households are under pressure from high living costs, which can limit how much buyers are able to borrow or spend. Even with prices cooling, homes remain far more expensive than before the pandemic, and affordability continues to shape who can afford to buy.
