Secondhand home prices in Dublin rose by almost 10% last year and are now selling for an average of €582,772 – up €50,000 in a year.

And outside of the capital, the average price of a secondhand home sold is up €30,000 in a year to €299,429.

Prices will continue rising strongly this year too, the latest residential market review from agent DNG outlines.

However, it says there has been an “exodus” of buy-to-let investors in the market with three times as many landlords selling up as buying.

At a national level, but excluding Dublin, the average price of a secondhand home grew 8.4% last year – up to €299,429 compared to €276,149 at the end of 2023.

It was almost double the rate of growth, 4.3%, seen in 2023.

But the steepest prices were in the Mid-West at 9.6%, while the West, South East and Midlands regions saw average prices rise by 8.7%.

The DNG report added: “The border region saw the lowest rate of price growth in 2024 at 6.8%, but this was still stronger than the rate of growth recorded in that area in 2023 of 4.6%.

Price growth in Dublin last year was also markedly higher than in 2023 when the average price of a residential property in the capital increased by 3.3%.

The highest rate of price increase last year was in south Dublin, at 10.5%, while north Dublin recorded increases of 8.5% and West Dublin saw 8.7% growth.

In the 12 months to March, DNG recorded annual price growth of 4.3% but by December, the annual rate had more than doubled to 9.6%, which was blamed on “the imbalance between demand and available supply”.

First-time buyers continue to dominate the second-hand market in the capital, making up 54% of purchases of resale homes there.

Some 18% of buyers were trading up while just 6% were trading down, which DNG says “is partly explained by the limited availability of bridging finance currently available in the market and the lack of suitable new homes for buyers to trade down to”.

Three times as many landlords are selling up as buying according to DNG, which described the loss of investors as “a continued exodus of small/medium size landlords from the Dublin market”.

“One-in-four of all sales last year were landlords selling investment properties, whilst one-in-12 were investing.

“To sustain a functioning rental market, the Government needs to accept and address this imbalance by reducing taxes on rental income or introducing meaningful incentives to get small landlords to stay in the sector whilst at the same time attracting new landlords in.”

DNG chief Keith Lowe said: “The number of residential property transactions last year is likely to reach 58,000 on the Property Price Register.

“The number of transactions last year will lag [behind] 2023 by around 8%, and Ireland still falls behind the UK by 26% in terms of number of house sales per thousand head of population.”

Of 32,500 homes built last year, less than a third were sold to individual buyers and DNG expects the trend to continue this year