The rise in house prices, despite stringent new mortgage lending rules, has been attributed to the proportion of ‘corporate’ investment in the Dublin residential property market.

The new Residential Property Price Index, launched by CSO today, revealed that non-household buyers such as private equity companies and REITs accounted for 19.6% of all market transactions in Dublin during 2014 and 19.2% in 2015.

“These figures tally with Savills’ own analysis that ‘block buyers’ (including corporates and high net-worth individuals) have been responsible for 20.9% of Dublin residential purchases since the start of 2012,” said Dr. John McCartney, director of research at Savills.

“With block purchasers invariably buying with cash, these figures illustrate why we have had continued house price growth despite the introduction of tighter mortgage lending rules.”