Average cost of house in Dublin now stands at €375,630

The average cost of a house in the capital now stands at €375,630, according to estate agent DNG.

In its latest price gauge report, the group blamed the recent slowdown in Dublin prices on the Central Bank’s new lending restrictions and the abolition of the Capital Gains Tax exemption, which was discontinued at the end of last year.

It estimated that Dublin residential property prices had risen by a modest 0.4 per cent in first quarter of this year, the smallest quarterly increase since the market started to recover back in 2012.

This reduced the annual rate of house price inflation to 14.4 per cent in the year to March. DNG noted the first quarter performance stood in contrast to the final quarter of 2014 when prices rose by 2.2 per cent on average.

“Following ten consecutive quarters of strong growth in prices, the latest results indicate a pause in price inflation across Dublin since the turn of the year,” it said in its latest price gauge.

The agency said it expected prices expected to rise by 5-10 per cent this year.

"The spike in house price increases over the course of last year, and consequent moderation in the first three months this year, was mainly due to the rush of investors trying to beat the CGT deadline of December," DNG chief executive Keith Lowe said.

"However, the new Central Bank lending rules also played a part in tempering price rises. In our opinion, whilst new regulations will be beneficial in the long run, their implementation at this stage was somewhat premature as the market was naturally levelling out itself towards the end of last year," he said.