Another fall in Northern Irish house prices
Thursday, 9 February 2012 12:44 PM
House prices fell 11 per cent in Northern Ireland in 2011 despite a significant improvement in transactions, according to the University of Ulster's quarterly house price index.
The average price of a home in the province is now £137,219, which is down 10.7 per cent over the last 12 months and 2.6 per cent over the last three.
However, the index – produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive – also shows that the total number of homes sold in the final quarter of the year rose from 684 in 2010 to 960 in 2011.
Within that total, the price of apartments saw the biggest fall (23.8 per cent) followed by detached bungalows (16.4 per cent) and detached houses (15.3 per cent). However, terraced homes (-3.4 per cent) and semis (-2.6 per cent) saw much smaller falls.
By region, Lisburn performed better than the overall market and South Belfast had the most expensive homes. The most affordable area was North Belfast.
Some 35 per cent of properties in Northern Ireland sold for less than £100,000 (up from 29 per cent in 2010) and 68 per cent sold for less than £150,000.
The authors of the report, Professor Alastair Adair, Professor Stanley McGreal and Dr David McIlhatton, said: "This survey shows that recovery in the Northern Ireland housing market is still not deeply embedded and remains vulnerable to economic circumstances and to the seasonal vagaries of the market which become more apparent during periods of thin market conditions."
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