The price of a newly built house in Ireland actually fell during October by E1,206 – and in turn possibly indicates the end of booming house prices.

The ESRI/Permanent TSB price survey reported that a new home in Ireland cost E300,479 in October compared to €301,686 in September.

The survey also revealed further signs of a market slowdown as the rate of rises in general prices weakened for the sixth month in succession.

But with that said, the average price of a house in Ireland now stands at E309,963 — an increase of 14.2% on October 2005 figures.

Nationally, the price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house was up by E310 (0.1%) to E310,568.

In Dublin, the average house price rose by 0.9% to E423,727. In the commuter counties of Louth, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow the rate of increase was 0.8% compared with 1.1% in September. The average price in these four counties is E344,431, with increases of 18% from October 2005 to October 2006.

Outside of Dublin the average price of a house was E266,912 an increase of 0.2% in the month.

Permanent TSB described the housing market as entering a “new price cycle”. Niall O’Grady of Permanent TSB said: “The positive thing is that, so far, it appears that this new phase will be characterised as a soft landing rather than a hard one. It is important to note that while the rate of increase continues to moderate, the fact is that national house prices continued to rise in October.

This highlights the continued strength of the housing market.

The figures reinforce the view that the recent series of interest rate rises are having an impact on house price growth in Ireland.

Year-on-year growth rates declined nationally across all (housing) market sectors in October and this is something we’ve not seen since December, 2004.”