Editorial: Northern Ireland does not need house prices to go any higher

Northern Ireland house prices are rising, according to data from the University of Ulster.​

Other data has reached similar conclusions about the property market here, which is relatively buoyant.

In common with the rest of the UK, and with Ireland and with countries around the western world, house prises rose notably after lockdown.

No-one is entirely sure why that was – it would make sense for people to want to move into homes with gardens in case of another lockdown, but not to apartments yet flats too have risen.

It would make sense for people to move out of cities to cheaper areas now that they can work from home, but they have held their value – London for example remains very very expensive.

Last week interest rates were cut in the UK, leading to widespread praise and almost celebratory reactions.

But if this makes house prices higher, will that in fact be a good thing?

Northern Ireland has still not recovered in the cost of an average house since the 2007 boom, although prices are well on the way to that level again in nominal terms (but not in real terms, when uprated for inflation).

That last boom should serve as a warning for over-heating prices, because people who bought then never got their money back. Some such people were first time buyers, a horrendous fate for such a purchaser.

Rising prices will also shut the current younger generation of would-be first time buyers out of home ownership, which could lead to bitterness and to the rise of politicians who want to hurt existing home owners financially.

What NI needs is a long period of stable, fair, affordable houses.

We do not need prices to rise significantly from where they are now, or it will cause fresh social problems for this society.