The small increase in April follows a 0.5% price fall recorded in March and compares with a 1.1% monthly price fall in April last year.
On an annual basis prices fell by 1.2%. This compares with an annual rate of decline of 3% in February and a decline of 16.4% recorded in the 12 months to April 2012.
The property market is looking more optimistic in Dublin and in the rest of the country. In Dublin residential property prices grew by 0.2% in April and were 1% higher than a year ago.
Dublin house prices were unchanged in the month but were 1.3% higher compared to a year earlier. Dublin apartment prices were 2.9% lower when compared with the same month of 2012.
However, the COS said that it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series.
The price of residential properties in the rest of Ireland grew by 1.2% in April compared with a decline of 2% in April last year. Prices were 2.8% lower than in April 2012.
Overall house prices in Dublin are 55% lower than at their highest level in early 2007. Apartments in Dublin are 61% lower than they were in March 2007. Residential property prices in Dublin are 56% lower than at their highest level in March 2007.
The fall in the price of residential properties in the rest of Ireland is somewhat lower at 48%. Overall, the national index is 50% lower than its highest level in 2007.
But some experts believe that the residential market is actually doing better than the CSO figures suggest. According to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) the data excludes around half of all transactions because they are cash deals without mortgages so the figures do not accurately reflect the supply and demand dynamics that affect prices in specific areas.
‘While all of the data on the property market is helpful, the average property price increases and decreases are not fully representative of all of the transactions in the market and therefore cannot provide a full and current assessment of property prices,’ said Simon Stokes, the chairman of the Residential Property Group of the SCSI.
‘For example, while the CSO figures suggest a 1% increase in residential property prices in Dublin, it is our experience that demand for family homes in good condition in well established areas has pushed prices higher than 1% and as such, a broad average figure is no longer reflective of the heterogeneous nature of residential properties,’ he added.