House prices nationally rose on average by 13.4 per cent in the 12 months to the end of January with the pace of growth expected to decelerate to between 8 per cent this year.
The Permanent TSB house price index, compiled in association with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), found that house prices across the State rose by 0.5 per cent in January alone.
Prices for first-time buyers increased by 16.1 per cent in the year to January 2004, a faster rise than the 11.9 per cent average rise for second-time buyers.
This trend was continued in January when prices for first time buyers rose by 1.1 per cent while second-time buyers faced a 0.2 per cent price rise.
The index showed prices for new houses rising significantly faster than those for second-hand houses. New homes cost 1 per cent more in January compared with the pervious month compared with a 0.2 per cent rise for second-hand properties.
In January the average price paid for a house was €235,156, nearly €30,000 more than in January 2003.
Mr Niall O'Grady, Head of Marketing with permanent tsb admitted that "ithin the figures, the relative strength of prices for new houses will be of some disappointment to those who had anticipated that the record numbers of new houses built last year would see a more significant easing of the rate of growth in this sector.
That doesn't appear to have been the case so far and there must be continued pressure to ensure no let up in the house building rate for the current year," he said.
In Dublin the average price paid for a house was €308,214 and compared with €205,364 outside Dublin.