House prices fall £46k in year
IT could have been cheaper to stay in a five-star hotel for the last year than to own a house in Northern Ireland, according to dramatic figures released today.
The University of Ulster's Quarterly House Price Index today reveals that the average house price in Northern Ireland has slumped by 46,881 over the last 12 months, meaning the average house has fallen in value by 128 a day.
With falls so substantial, homeowners could have saved money by selling their homes last year and checking in to a five-star hotel.
The King Hilton guest room can be booked in advance for 113 a night, Ten Square hotel in Belfast city centre has rooms from 99 a night and last night it was possible to book the five-star Culloden Hotel, where David Beckham and the England football team have stayed, for 100 a night.
Even the Merchant Hotel, the Province's most opulent, was last night offering rooms for 140, just slightly more expensive than the cost of owning a house over the last year.
The UU survey also reveals that some estate agents have not sold a single property over the last three months.
Overall, the price of the average home in Northern Ireland fell almost nine per cent in the three months between July and August, the survey found.
While the weighted fall in property values was about 15 per cent over the last year, some property types saw much greater falls, with detached bungalows dropping by almost 30 per cent and semi-detached bungalows falling by almost 28 per cent.
There was also a dramatic fall in the number of houses selling at all, with only 670 transactions across Northern Ireland during the three-month period – less than half the number sold during the same period last year.
Incredibly, according to the survey, at least 10 per cent of estate agents reported no sales during the three-month period and many other agents had less than five sales.
According to the survey, the overall average price of a house in the third quarter this year was 203,775, compared to more than 250,000 in the third quarter of 2007.
According to the survey, apartment prices bucked the downward trend and actually rose in value by 10 per cent.
The report's authors, UU academics Professor Alastair Adair, Professor Stanley McGreal and Louise Brown, said that the credit crunch was wreaking havoc with the housing market.
They said: “The impact has been severe on the local housing market with prices down considerably.
“In addition, the volume of transactions has been eroded further, notably in the resale market where many sellers are adopting a wait-and-see approach.”
Economist Alan Bridle, head of research at Bank of Ireland Northern Ireland, said that despite the price reductions already seen, there had not been an increase in house sales.
He predicted that average house prices could fall by another 25,000 over the next six months.
But Simon Brien, a director at BTW Cairns, one of the Province’s largest estate agencies, said that his firm was experiencing more sales than the level of sales the survey said was average for local estate agents.
“We are experiencing significant sales – in October we had 97 sales and in the first two weeks of this month we have had 44 sales and a lot of that would be involving first-time buyers and in the new-build homes sector where builders have reduced their prices,” he said.
“In some instances those prices could be back 30 per cent but there are variations.”
But he added: “It will need recovery in the mortgage markets and rate reductions passed on to start getting confidence built again.”
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Monday 28 May 2012
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