Housing prices in Carlow 12% higher in the same period last year
The average housing price is now at €279,000, a 50% increase in the level seen at the start of the pandemic
In Carlow, prices in the first three months of 2025 were 12% higher than a year previously, compared to a rise of 2% seen in the 12 months to March 2024. The average price of a home is now €279,000, 50% above the level seen at the start of the covid19 pandemic.
The current rate of inflation in the market is the second-highest seen in the ten years since mortgage market rules were introduced, exceeded only by the spike in prices seen in early 2017 (11.7% year-on-year then, vs 11.6% year-on-year now).
The surge in inflation is being driven by Dublin and the rest of Leinster. Inflation in the capital is now running at 12.2%, the highest rate in eight years, while in the rest of Leinster, the annual increase in prices is 13.4%, also the highest since early 2017. Galway (13.2%) and Limerick cities (13.8%) are also seeing rates of inflation above the national average, while the rate seen in Waterford (11.2%) and Cork cities (9.2%) is slower.
As before, the sharp increases in prices around the country are happening at a time of very tight supply. The number of second-hand homes available to buy nationwide on March 1st stood at less than 9,300. This is down 17% year-on-year and also marks the lowest total ever recorded in a series extending back to January 2007. The three months since the start of the year mark the only three months since 2007 where there have been fewer than 10,000 second-hand homes available to buy.
Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons, economist at Trinity College Dublin, said:
“Housing prices are now increasing at a faster rate than almost any other time since mortgage market rules were introduced a decade ago. The increases are clearly linked to the lack of second-hand supply. Even as transactions of newly-built homes increase, the second-hand market is at its tightest in a series going back almost two decades.
The latest surge in inflation is due, at least in part, to the well-flagged increase in interest rates, which saw existing homeowners fix their rates, often for many years, with consequences for liquidity in the second-hand market. But while the increase in interest rates has played a role, the underlying issue remains the housing deficit. The mortgage market rules were introduced a decade ago to prevent a repeat of the loose lending that drove Ireland’s Celtic Tiger bubble and crash. Nonetheless, prices are up 75% since then, not because of too much credit but because of too few homes.”