Ireland recorded the second highest increase in house prices in the European Union during the April to June quarter, according to new figures published by the EU’s official statistics body, Eurostat.

House prices in Ireland rose 10.6 per cent versus the second quarter a year of 2016, behind the Czech Republic, which recorded a 13.3 per cent increase, but ahead of Lithuania, where property prices jumped 10.3 per cent.

Overall, house prices in the EU rose 4.4 per cent compared to the second quarter a year earlier with an increase of 3.8 per cent for the 19 member states sharing the euro.

Compared with the first quarter of 2017, house prices rose by 1.5 per cent in the euro zone and by 1.8 per cent in the EU as a whole in the April to June period.

The highest prices increases on a quarter-on-quarter basis were recorded in Latvia and Slovakia, where prices increased by 6.1 per cent and 5.6 per cent respectively.