Every single month, someone on the radio tells you Irish property prices “rose again.” The number they’re reading off is the CSO’s Residential Property Price Index — the RPPI — and in February 2026 it hit 204.9. In plain terms: houses cost roughly 105% more than they did back in 2015. Over the last twelve months, it’s up 6.8%.
Grand. But here’s the thing nobody explains when they quote that figure at you: it doesn’t tell you what to pay for a specific house. If you’re about to hand over four hundred grand this spring, you need to know what that 6.8% actually means for you — and just as importantly, what it doesn’t. So let me break it down the way I’d break it down for a mate.
What the RPPI actually measures
The RPPI isn’t a simple average. It’s what the statisticians call a hedonic index — a fancy word for “we adjust for the mix.” Here’s why that matters. If one month a load of penthouses sell and the next month it’s mostly small starter homes, a plain average would jump all over the place, and none of that swing would be about prices actually changing. The RPPI strips that out. It compares like with like, so the movement you see is genuine.
That’s exactly why the RPPI (“up 6.8%”) and the median sale price (“the middle house went for €345k”) can tell you two different stories on the same day. The RPPI is saying prices for the same kind of home rose 6.8%. The median is just saying — of everything that happened to sell this month — the one in the middle was €345k. Change what sold, and that median moves without a single price shifting.
You want both. The RPPI tells you which way the market’s heading and how fast. The median — the one BuyerIQ puts on every report — tells you what people are genuinely paying near you. One’s the weather forecast, the other’s you sticking your head out the door.
The national picture — February 2026
| Segment | Index (Feb 2026) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| National — all residential | 204.9 | +6.8% |
| National — houses | 200.1 | +6.3% |
| National — apartments | 226.5 | +8.7% |
| Dublin — all residential | 189.2 | +7.1% |
| Dublin — apartments | 207.8 | +9.1% |
| National excl. Dublin — houses | 215.3 | +5.8% |
Look at the one that jumps out: apartments are running ahead of houses — 8.7% versus 6.3% nationally, and a full 9.1% for Dublin apartments. That’s not a fad. It’s the plain fact that we’ve barely built any apartments in years. CSO completions data still has apartment output below where it was in 2007 across most of Dublin. Not enough of them, too many people wanting them — prices go one way.
Who’s actually buying
The CSO also breaks purchases down by buyer type, and it’s worth a glance because it tells you who you’re up against when you go bidding.
- First-time buyers are about 58% of all purchases nationally over the last year — and that share has been climbing since Help-to-Buy got extended. If you’re a first-timer, you’re not the odd one out. You’re the crowd.
- Movers (people trading up) are around 30%. Steady, but they pay more on average — that’s the second step onto something bigger.
- Investors (the buy-to-let crowd) are down to roughly 12%, from a peak of 18% back in 2018. Eight years of tax changes aimed squarely at landlords will do that.
What this actually means for you
Let me put the 6.8% in money. A house worth €400,000 a year ago is, on average, worth about €427,200 today. That’s €27,200 of growth in twelve months — roughly €2,267 a month. If you’ve been sitting on a deposit waiting for the “right time,” be honest with yourself: the market has been moving faster than your savings account ever will.
But — and this is the bit that matters — the RPPI is a national figure. It’s an average of the whole country, and averages hide everything interesting. Some Eircode areas in the midlands are flat. Parts of south Dublin are up over 10%. If you buy based on the national number, you’re steering by a map of the wrong county.
So use the RPPI for what it’s good at — knowing the tide’s coming in and how quickly. Then, before you bid on anything, check the actual depth at your feet: real comparable sales for the exact area you’re buying in. That’s the number that decides whether your offer is smart or a few grand too generous.