House Price Inflation Slows to 3% as Stock Rises and Buyers Gain More Breathing Room
Transaction price growth has fallen to its lowest rate since 2020, while the premium paid above initial asking prices has dropped sharply. However, the number of second-hand homes for sale remains around half pre-pandemic levels.
28 September 2026 | 📧 editor@ipropertyradio.com
Ireland’s housing market is showing clearer signs of cooling, with annual list price inflation falling to 3% and transaction price growth slowing to just 0.8%, according to the latest Daft.ie Sales Report.
The average list price across all property types was just under €445,000 in the third quarter of 2026. Listed prices remain 44% above their pre-Covid level, but are still 7.5% below the Celtic Tiger peak.
The latest figures continue the slowdown evident earlier this year. In June, annual list price inflation stood at 3.8%, down from 6.8% a year earlier. Daft.ie_Q2_2026_Sales_Report
The more significant change is emerging in completed sales. Daft.ie analysis of transactions recorded on the Property Price Register and matched with its listings indicates transaction prices increased by just 0.8% in the year to September, the slowest annual increase since 2020.
That compares with annual transaction price growth of 3.2% in June, although Daft.ie cautions that recent transaction data is provisional because sales are registered on the Property Price Register with a lag. Daft.ie_Q2_2026_Sales_Report
Another indicator of changing conditions is the gap between asking and selling prices. A year ago, the typical home ultimately sold for 6.8% more than its initial listed price. That premium has now narrowed to 2.6%, its lowest level since 2023.
The figures suggest buyers are facing less intense competition than during the stronger market conditions of 2025, although the national averages conceal substantial regional differences.
Dublin and the rest of Leinster are recording some of the weakest list price growth. Dublin prices were 2.7% higher year-on-year in September, while Leinster excluding Dublin recorded growth of 2.1%.
Inflation remains considerably stronger elsewhere. List prices increased by 11% in Waterford city and by just under 6% in each of Cork, Galway and Limerick cities. Prices increased by 4.6% across Munster outside the cities and by 3.6% in Connacht-Ulster excluding Galway.
Taken together, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford have now moved just above their Celtic Tiger-era peak, becoming the first of Daft.ie’s broad regions to do so.
The price of individual property types also highlights the affordability gap between Ireland’s cities. The average listed price for a three-bedroom semi-detached home in Dublin was €635,000 in Q3. The equivalent was €431,000 in Cork city, €376,000 in Limerick and €313,000 in Waterford. In Galway, the average listed price for a four-bedroom detached home was €618,000.
The cooling market is accompanied by an increase in the number of properties available to buy. There were just under 13,800 second-hand homes for sale nationally on 1 September, 12.5% more than a year earlier.
However, this does not represent a return to normal levels of housing availability. The stock for sale remains only around half the pre-pandemic norm of more than 26,000 homes. In June, Daft.ie had recorded 13,118 second-hand homes for sale, also approximately 50% below the 2015-2019 average. Daft.ie_Q2_2026_Sales_Report
Crucially, the increase in available stock is not being driven by significantly more homeowners putting properties up for sale. Just under 52,700 second-hand homes were listed in the year to August, broadly unchanged from each of the previous two years.
Instead, fewer properties are leaving the market. The number of listings exiting the market fell by 3%, meaning homes are remaining available for longer and gradually increasing the overall stock for sale.
Transaction data points to another important shift between the new and second-hand markets. Second-hand sales fell by 1% in the year to June, while sales of new homes increased by 13%.
This continues a pattern already evident earlier in 2026. Daft.ie recorded 58,485 housing transactions in the year to March, up 3.2%, but that increase was driven entirely by new homes, where transactions rose 17% to almost 14,000. Second-hand transactions fell by 0.5%. Daft.ie_Q2_2026_Sales_Report
Report author Ronan Lyons, Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, said the clearest Q3 signal is that house price inflation is easing across both listed and transaction prices.
“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%,” he said.
However, he cautioned against interpreting the slowdown as evidence that Ireland’s second-hand housing supply problem has been resolved.
“The flow of homes coming onto the market has been flat for three years. What has changed is how quickly those homes sell,” he said.
Lyons said some demand outside Dublin appears to have shifted towards newly built homes, while Dublin has recorded weaker sales in both the new and second-hand markets.
The Q3 figures therefore point to a changing housing market rather than a major recovery in supply. Price inflation is slowing, bidding pressure has eased and homes are taking longer to leave the market, but the stock of second-hand properties available nationally remains roughly half its pre-pandemic level.
