DUBLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Home prices in Ireland continued to grow in June for the fourth month in a row, but at a slower pace, according to the figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday.
In the month, the average home prices in the country inched up by 0.1 percent compared with the same month of last year, but the growth rate has obviously slowed down, showed the CSO figures.
In March when the COVID-19 pandemic was yet to deliver a material impact on the Irish economy, the home prices in the country managed to grow by 0.9 percent over a year ago. Since then, the growth rate of the residential property prices in Ireland had shown a month-on-month decline, first down to a 0.7-percent growth in April, then to a 0.3-percent growth in May.
The home price movement in Dublin, the capital city in Ireland, which houses about 28 percent of the country's nearly 5-million population, may tell something in advance as the city has always taken the lead in home price falls and rises in the country.
In June, the average home prices in Dublin reported a year-on-year drop of 0.7 percent. A further breakdown of the June home price movement in the city showed that the house prices in the city decreased by 0.9 percent when compared with June 2019 and its apartment prices rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year.
The rise of apartment prices is partially due to the scarcity of such type of residence in the city.
The CSO figures showed that during the international financial crisis, Dublin home prices dropped to its lowest point in February 2012. The average home prices in the country did not find their bottom until a year later in March 2013.
If this is again the case with the price movement of the country's residential property market during this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, the home prices in Ireland could expect further drops in the near future particularly when the country has twice postponed its move into the fourth phase of reopening its economy and society due to recent outbreaks of clusters of infections in parts of Ireland.
On Saturday, Ireland reported another 200 COVID-19 cases, the sharpest rise in a single day since the beginning of May, following a spike in daily new infections in the country since the end of last month.
The Irish government is going to hold a cabinet meeting later on Tuesday to consider the recommendations of public health experts as what steps the country should take next in suppressing the recent resurgence of COVID-19 cases, according to local media reports.
The possible strengthening of the COVID-19 restrictive measures in some areas and some sectors of the country could adversely impact the local residential property market, said local market watchers. Enditem
