Irish housing market transactions exceeded €10 billion last year, for the first time since 2008.

The Irish Property Price Register now shows that home and buy-to-let purchases totalling €10.1 billion took place in 2015, up 8 per cent from the €9.3 billion in 2014 and €6.1 billion in 2013. Last year’s figure was the strongest since 2008.

While the December figures are not yet finalised, Davy Stockbrokers said transactions are likely to have grown by 7 per cent in 2015 once all transactions are recorded.

Davy analyst Conall Mac Coille said the data shows stronger growth in activity levels outside the capital.

Transactions recorded in Dublin are up 2.5 per cent but are up by 7 per cent in Cork, 8 per cent in Galway and 13 per cent in Limerick.

He said the volume of transactions is being held back by the lack of home building, with just 12,500 completions expected in 2015 – below the estimated 25,000 required to match demand.