House prices had the strongest start to any year since 2000 as they continued growing in February.
According to the Permanent TSB/ESRI house price index, house prices rose by 1% overall last month, down slightly from 1.2% in January.
Since July, house price growth has been around 1% a month since last July.
The annual rate of growth in February picked up to 11.1% from 10.2% in January.
Prices are up 2.2% in the first two months of 2006, compared with a rise of just 0.6% in the same period last year.