Where the numbers come from
Every figure on Hereabouts is built from public data. This page lists each source, who publishes it, how often it updates, and how recent our copy is.
How a number gets to the page
From a public release to a figure in the report
Published
A public body releases a dataset: the PSRA, the CSO, the RTB via the CSO, the Central Bank, local authorities, Tailte Éireann.
Fetched
We pull it on the publisher's own schedule, weekly for sales and planning, monthly or quarterly for CSO series, and keep the raw copy.
Placed
Each record is matched to a town, LEA and county, from its address or map coordinates, against Ordnance Survey Ireland boundaries.
Reported
Medians, trends and rankings are calculated from the cleaned tables and feed the monthly report, the rankings and the signals.
The sources
22 public sources, and how recent each one is
Prices and sales
What homes sold for, and the official index that smooths it.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Property Price Register Sale prices, volumes, new-build flag. | PSRA | Weekly, full file each time | Address, placed to town, LEA and county | – |
| Residential Property Price IndexHPM06 The independent index the monthly report checks the register against. | CSO | Monthly | National | – |
| RPPI by Eircode areaHPM08 County price index, with first-time and other-buyer splits. | CSO | Monthly | Eircode routing key, mapped to county | – |
Rents and assistance
What tenants pay, and how many rely on state support.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTB Rent IndexRIQ02 Average and median rents, the other half of gross yield. | CSO, from RTB data | Quarterly, 2 to 3 month lag | Town and county, mapped to LEA | – |
| Housing Assistance PaymentsHAP01, HAP14 How widely HAP is used in a county. | CSO | Annual | Local authority, mapped to county | – |
Planning, land and supply
What is being applied for, appealed, zoned and built.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning applications Application volumes and grant rates by area. | National Open Data (ArcGIS) | Weekly | Map point, placed to LEA | – |
| Planning appeals Appeal outcomes, behind the planning-risk signals. | An Bord Pleanála | Weekly | Map point, placed to LEA | – |
| Planning permissionsBHQ17 County totals, separate from the individual applications. | CSO | Quarterly | County | – |
| New dwelling completionsNDQ06 Homes built, compared with structural demand. | CSO | Quarterly | Local authority, mapped to county | – |
| Structural household demand The baseline scenario that completions are measured against. | ESRI, via data.gov.ie | Static projection, updated ad hoc | Local authority, grouped to county | – |
| Development plan zoning How much land is zoned for what. | Department of Housing (ArcGIS) | Ad hoc, when plans change | Land parcel, placed to LEA | – |
| Residential Zoned Land Tax map Which zoned land is in the tax net. | Tailte Éireann (ArcGIS) | Annual map | Land parcel | – |
| Commercial property valuations Commercial context for an area. | Tailte Éireann | Quarterly, with the valuation roll | Local authority, placed to LEA | – |
People, income and vacancy
Who lives in an area and what they earn.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census 2022 Small Area Population StatisticsSAPS Household size, tenure and population. | CSO | One-off, next census 2027 | Small area, rolled up to LEA and town | Census 2022 |
| County incomesRAA02 Disposable income per person, the basis of the modelled household income. | CSO | Annual | County | – |
| Weekly earningsDEA05 Median weekly earnings on county pages. | CSO | Annual | County | – |
| Residential vacancyVAC15 Vacancy rates, behind the vacancy signals. | CSO | Quarterly | County and LEA | – |
Lending and arrears
How buyers are financed, and where borrowers are struggling.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage lending Loan values, first-time buyer share, loan-to-income. | Central Bank of Ireland | Annual | National | – |
| Mortgage arrears Arrears and repossessions, owner-occupier and buy-to-let. | Central Bank of Ireland | Quarterly | National | – |
Geography and names
The maps and names that let every record land in the right place.
| Source | Published by | Updates | Geography | Held to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative boundaries The boundaries every record is matched against. | Ordnance Survey Ireland | One-off | LEAs, settlements, small areas | – |
| Placenames Database Irish-language names on area pages. | Logainm, Placenames Branch | One-off | County, barony, civil parish | – |
| OpenStreetMap places Fills gaps in address matching, such as neighbourhoods the boundaries do not name. | OpenStreetMap contributors, via Geofabrik | On demand | Named places and streets | – |
Sources are listed as documented in our pipeline. Some are used only to place records in the right area, not as figures in their own right, such as OpenStreetMap places and Logainm.
Reading the numbers
What to keep in mind
New builds are recorded ex-VAT
The Property Price Register flags VAT-exclusive sales, which are mostly new builds. They are not directly comparable with second-hand prices.
Rents arrive late
RTB figures reach us two to three months after a quarter ends. A zero in the source means too little data, not a zero rent.
Household income is modelled
The CSO publishes disposable income per person by county. We multiply it by the county's average household size from Census 2022. It is an estimate, and LEA ratios use the county figure.
Yield is gross
Gross yield is annualised rent divided by median sale price, before costs. At county level it is approximated from the county's average rent.
Small markets are noisy
A median built on few sales moves with what happened to sell. Read large swings in thin markets as a possible change of mix, not only of value.
Places are matched, not surveyed
Records are placed by address text or coordinates. A point outside every boundary is assigned to the nearest LEA, within about 15 km.
Licences
All source data is open government data, used in accordance with the relevant licences. PSRA data is reproduced in accordance with the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011. CSO data © Central Statistics Office, reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. Tailte Éireann, Logainm, and RZLT data is reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. Planning application data is provided by local authorities through the National Open Data programme. Geographic boundary data is © Ordnance Survey Ireland. Structural housing demand data is © ESRI, reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0) — unlike the other sources above, this licence requires that any adaptation of this specific data (including the "% of structural housing demand" figures shown on this site) be shared onward under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 terms.
See these sources at work in this month's report.
Read the monthly report →