Editorial: Slow house sales are the latest sign of a strange property market in Northern Ireland

​​The housing market in the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland has been an unhealthy one for 20 years. In the early 2000s prices rose rapidly, and this was almost entirely celebrated by the media and the public at large. In a way it is logical that people celebrated high prices – NI had had years of violence and suddenly homeowners felt prosperous. Few people would be upset about a big increase in their wealth.

But the rise was ruinous, particularly in Northern Ireland, which, like the Republic, had a much bigger boom than in Great Britain. We had a much bigger bust too. A News Letter survey of the housing surveys concluded that home prices in NI fell 58% from their 2007 peak to a trough around 2013. Some people were financially destroyed, including young people who had been encouraged by the elders to get on the property ladder because it can't go wrong.

For years after the crash sales levels in NI were very low. Why? Because owners would not sell in a low price environment unless they had to. Then prices gradually returned to a healthy level where owners felt they had equity but young people could still afford to buy. Covid sent prices surging again, albeit not to 2007 levels.

Now the number of house transactions in NI has fallen by 20% in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. It is not clear what is happening. Interest rates are sharply up but prices here are not yet falling significantly. It seems instead that people are reluctant to sell in an uncertain market.

It is hard to get housing right, but one thing we should try to ensure is that the younger generations can always buy. Resentment is building up among those who can't, particularly in southern England where prices are sky high. That could push a generation towards radical, even extreme, political solutions.