Survey confirms near 50pc house price drop
There was standing room only at a residential property auction at the Europa Hotel in Belfast recently
HOUSE prices in Northern Ireland have almost halved from peak levels, the province’s most comprehensive residential property survey revealed yesterday.
The University of Ulster recorded an average home price of £137,219 in the last quarter of 2011, down 45.2 per cent from the peak of £250,586 in the third quarter of 2007.
The figures paint a picture of prices continuing to decline, but at a more modest pace, confirming trends in other major house price surveys.
The Nationwide has reported a sharper overall fall in house prices of 50 per cent from peak, while the Halifax has seen a 53 per cent decline. All three surveys found that prices peaked in either the second or third quarters of 2007.
Last week hundreds of buyers flocked to an auction in Belfast to take advantage of some of the bargain prices that are increasingly on offer across the province.
Twenty-four lots, many of them repossessed houses, were snapped up at the £3 million sale in the Europa Hotel, organised by BTWCairns.
Among the houses sold were a pair of huge listed, but almost derelict, buildings on College Gardens, near Queen’s University in Belfast, that fetched £230,000 — £115,000 each. The street is one of the grandest and best located in Belfast, and houses in good condition would have been worth more than £1 million in 2007.
In its property report, the UU uses a weighted index to show changes in average prices, which showed a decline of 10.7 per cent over the year and 2.6 per cent in the final quarter.
The survey, produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, also reported an increase in house sales during the last three months of 2011. There were 960 transactions compared with 684 sales in the same quarter in 2010.
“The figure is lower than the previous two quarters of 1,133 and 1,062 respectively, reflecting the quieter winter sales period, but a significant improvement on the year suggesting that the limited market recovery in terms of sales had not stalled,” a UU statement said.
The authors of the report — Professor Alastair Adair, Prof Stanley McGreal and Dr David McIlhatton — said: “Although the market is showing some tentative signs of stabilisation, it is still rather thin in terms of transaction levels with average prices tending to be lower rather than higher.”
Broken down by house type, the survey found that the largest decline was in apartments, which fell 23.8 per cent over the year to £101,650.
Detached bungalows fell 16.4 per cent to £157,740, while detached houses dropped 15.3 per cent to £212,744. Terraced and townhouses fell 3.4 per cent to £95,207 and semi-detached houses decreased 2.6 per cent to £134,845. Only semi-detached bungalows saw an increase, rising 6.7 per cent to £118,649.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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