Belfast is the most popular place to buy

There were almost 7,350 properties ‘sale agreed’ over the last three months of 2020, 27% more than during the same period in 2019. Furthermore, sales of four and five+ bed properties increased by over 40% compared to the year before.

Belfast remains the most popular place to purchase, recording over 1,500 sales followed by Ards & North Down (990) and Lisburn and Castlereagh (810). The online property portal reported annual house price growth has accelerated to 3.7% with prices increasing by 1.9% during the previous 3 months after ‘lockdown.’ The average advertised property is now valued at £172,000.

Annual house price growth of houses increased to 4.3% compared to apartments whereby prices have fallen by 4.0% over the previous 12 months. House prices remained flat or increased over the previous three months across all council boundaries, ranging from 0.0% in Fermanagh & Omagh to 2.7% in Ards and North Down.

The report stated that there were close to 6,000 properties added to the market during Q4 2020, approximately 17% more than the same period in 2019 as supply continues to accelerate after the temporary market closure during Spring 2020.

The rental market has remained buoyant as typical rents accelerated by 1.5% over the previous three months and an annual rate of 4.7%. The average rent in Northern Ireland now is £667 per month, of which houses are £654 p/m and apartments £686 p/m. There were also approximately 3,400 new rental properties listed in Q4 2020, 3% fewer than the same period in 2019.

Jordan Buchanan, Chief Economist at PropertyPal commented on the performance of the housing market during the third quarter of the year: “The housing market ended the year almost undeterred from the pandemic and enters 2021 on positive foundations. Overall ‘sale agreed’ levels were only 2% below ‘normal’ levels observed in 2019 and house prices grew at sustainable rates in the region of 3.5%. Wealthier demographics played an important role in market activity with sales of four and five+ beds increasing by 51% during the second half of the year compared to 2019 levels. Covid-19 has created a re-assessment of housing needs and it is noteworthy that prices of apartments fell by 4.0% last year compared to growth of 4.3% of houses.

“The opening quarter of 2021 is likely to show continued buoyancy as a backlog of sales complete and new buyers rush to beat the stamp duty tax break by the end of March. The outlook for later this year remains more precarious and is dependent on a range of factors, not least the success and speed of the vaccine programme and the extent to which the wider economy can experience an uninterrupted recovery. Of encouragement, several lenders have re-introduced mortgage products for customers with a 10% deposit which will act as a stimulus for the first-time buyer segment of the market.

“Ongoing economic and political uncertainty has stimulated exceptionally strong demand levels in the rental market leading to rising rents across both houses and apartments. However, the supply of rental properties coming to the market has largely recovered to 2019 levels and leading indicators show signs of cooling demand levels. Rising rents against a backdrop of falling incomes has created affordability pressures for households and the labour market profile suggests renters are more vulnerable to job losses compared to homeowners. This may lead to falling rents later in the year.”

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