Irish house price growth accelerates, up 4.5% year-on-year in April

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish residential property prices rose at the fastest annual pace for almost two-and-a-half years in April, up 4.5% year-on-year compared with a rise of 3.5% the previous month, Central Statistics Office data showed on Wednesday.

While the COVID-19 pandemic briefly halted seven years of unbroken price growth last year, a second shutdown of construction earlier this year has compounded a long-standing mismatch between low supply and high demand.

Property prices outside of Dublin were 5.4% higher in April than a year before compared with growth of 3.5% in the capital, the data showed. Overall, prices are 14.3% below a peak hit in 2007 before the bursting of a property bubble.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)