House prices have fallen by an average of around €9,000 since the beginning of the year, new figures have revealed.

The house price index, compiled by the ESRI and Permanent TSB shows the three per cent increase, and also reveals prices fell by 0.4 per cent in July alone, following a 0.5 per cent drop in June. The average price of a house in Ireland now stands at €301,267 - roughly the same as the average for June of last year.

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Niall O’Grady, Head of Marketing at Permanent TSB, said the overall picture is one of a housing market “marking time” after ten years of exceptional growth.

“The fact that new house construction is slowing and we’re coming towards the top of the cycle in terms of interest rates are likely to be critical in determining how the market behave for the remainder of this year and into next,” he said.

The survey also revealed that house prices in Dublin dropped by 1.9 per cent in July and by 0.2 per cent outside the city.

First and second-time buyers saw price decreases of 0.4 and 0.7 per cent respectively, to €268,904 and €337,875.

(JM/SP)