Irish residential property prices have increased by 14.9% in the year to August. This compares with an increase of 13.4% in July and 2.8% in the 12 months to August 2013.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) says prices rose by 2.3% last month - compared with an increase of 2% for July and just 0.9% for August of last year.

In Dublin, residential prices grew by 3.5% last month and were 25.1% higher than a year ago. This is a 24.7% increase when compared to a year earlier.

While apartment prices in the capital were 32.6% higher when compared with the same month of 2013.

However, the CSO adds that sub-indices for apartments are based on low transaction volumes and consequently suffer from greater volatility.

The price of property in the rest of the country was up by 0.8% in August, compared with a marginal increase of 0.1% in August of last year.

Residential property prices in Dublin are 41% lower than at their highest level in February 2007.

While the price of residential properties outside Dublin is 44.6% lower than their highest level seen in September 2007.