Northern Ireland house prices up 57.6% in a year

Wednesday, 4 April 2007 12:00 AM

House prices in Northern Ireland have risen 57.6 per cent in the last year, research out today reveals.

Nationwide's quarterly look at the UK's regional house prices reveals Northern Ireland's price increase is the fastest since records began in 1973.

The average home in the province is now worth more than £200,000, well ahead of the UK average house price of £175,554.

"Prices increased in every part of the UK in the last 12 months, but the rate at which they rose was quite different across the country," commented Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide chief economist.

"Northern Ireland and London stand out as the leaders with the fastest annual rates of house price growth in the UK. In contrast, the northern and north-west regions and Wales saw the biggest slowdown in the annual rate of house price growth.

"Overall, the annual rate of house price growth in the UK is firm, but the quarterly data suggest that the underlying rate of growth is now starting to cool. During the first three months of the year the rate of house price inflation slowed from 3.3 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

"However, London and Northern Ireland bucked this softening trend with house prices increasing by 4.4 per cent and 14.6 per cent respectively during the first quarter."

The top five regional towns and cities experiencing the biggest annual rises in house prices were Belfast (up 61 per cent), Norwich (up 18 per cent), Oxford (up 17 per cent), Cambridge (up 16 per cent) and Carlisle (14 per cent).

Of these locations Oxford has the highest average house price at £309,680 and Carlisle has the lowest at £149,331.

The bottom five regional towns and cities experiencing negative or small house price increases over the last year were Nottingham (down two per cent), Newcastle (up one per cent), Liverpool (up two per cent), Coventry (up three per cent) and Cardiff (up four per cent).

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