PROPERTIES have dropped in price by tens of thousands of pounds within days of going on the market.
Popular website - PropertySnake — which monitors prices quoted by several estate agents around the UK including Northern Ireland — has listed hundreds of Ulster properties where prices have been reduced by up to 30 per cent.
The falls come as hous
ing charities warn that soaring mortgage repayments and plummeting house prices mean some tenants will be forced out of their homes if private sector landlords' properties are repossessed.
According to the website, the price of one four-bedroom terraced house in east Belfast was cut by £20,000 within 10 days of being put on the market at £170,000.
A four-bedroom semi-detached house in Newtownabbey was also reduced by £20,000 less than two weeks after being put up for sale at £244,950.
The website shows that the longer houses remain unsold, the more willing owners are to accept considerably less for their property.
Evidence of the trend can be seen in two recent cases: the asking price for a two-bedroom terraced house in east Belfast was slashed by 25 per cent less than a month after being put on the market, while a similar dwelling in the west of the city, which went on sale three months ago, is being pitched at 70 per cent of the original figure.
The property was listed for sale at the end of January for £130,000 and the owner is now trying to sell it for £90,000.
Another property, a two-bedroom flat in north Belfast, which has been on the market for the same time, has been reduced in price by 30 per cent from £158,000 to £110,000.
And another north Belfast property has had £50,000 knocked off the asking price just over three months after being listed for sale.
The two-bedroom property was put on the market in January for £170,000 but is now on offer at £120,000.
Academics, economists and even some estate agents have agreed that the property market is likely to experience falls until at least the end of the year, with some experts predicting that property may even fall in value for several years.
Figures released last week revealed that the number of houses being repossessed in Northern Ireland is rising at a considerably faster rate than in the rest of the United Kingdom.
The full article contains 411 words and appears in News Letter newspaper.