House prices in Belfast have fallen 28% since the financial crisis

A decade on from the financial crash house prices in the capital are on average 28% less than they were in July 2008, before the crash took place.
A house in BelfastA house in Belfast
A house in Belfast

This July the average cost of a house in Belfast was just £129,629, compared to £165,000 ten years ago, according to figures from Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index.

The sheer drop in prices bucks the typical trend across the UK of rising house prices with only Liverpool and Aberdeen also seeing a drop in average house price.

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Liverpool average house prices are 1% less than they were in 2008, while Aberdeen has fared slightly worse with prices dipping on average by 3%.

A house in BelfastA house in Belfast
A house in Belfast

Promising short-term picture

While prices have yet to recover to pre-financial crisis levels, house prices in Belfast have seen a steady increase in 2018.

In the past year house prices have risen by 3.2%, just shy of the national average of 3.7%.

Only London and Aberdeen have seen a drop in the average house price between July 2017 and July 2018.

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London's house prices since the 2008 crash have, however, increased on average by 65%.

'Still recovering from the financial crisis'

Richard Donnell of Hometrack discussed the house price analysts' findings:

"The fact house prices in some of our biggest cities are still recovering from the financial crisis shows how big an impact it had on the UK's regional housing markets.

"While 2008 was the year when house prices fell at their fastest rate, they continued to fall for a further three to four years in the weaker performing markets as the impact of the recession and restricted credit availability hit the value of people's homes.

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"These past ten years would have been difficult for many homeowners living in these cities, with low prices, weak growth making it difficult to move homes for work or to up-size to accommodate growing families. "