House prices drop as boom slows

The average price of a house in Northern Ireland has fallen by £20,000.
The end of 2007 saw prices drop so that the average house was worth £230,000 compared with a peak last summer of £250,000.

The latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index confirms that the boom in house prices is slowing down.

Although still higher than during the same period in 2006, house prices fell in the final quarter of 2007.

According to the report's authors - Professor Alastair Adair, Professor Stanley McGreal and Louise Brown of the University of Ulster - the end of year survey showed a housing market in transition.

Mrs Brown said: "Although price levels are still significantly higher than at this stage last year, the final quarter of 2007 saw price levels come down and the volume of transactions fall, particularly in the second-hand market."

The university's survey, produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, is the broadest-based and most authoritative of all those undertaken in Northern Ireland. It covers some 117 estate agencies.

Hitting a brick wall

The economist Alan Bridle, of the Bank of Ireland, said the housing market had "hit a brick wall" in the final months of 2007 and there was the possibility that the average price could fall by 5% to 10% over the 12 months in 2008.

Most house types showed a drop in retail price at the end of last year.

Terraced and town houses were down by 6%, semi-detached houses by 7.3%, detached houses by 8.1% and semi-detached bungalows by 4.1%.

However, new-build apartments bucked the trend by rising 6.6% while detached bungalows showed a marginal 0.2% increase.

Average price by region


Belfast - £225,424, down by 12.7% over the quarter but up 17.5% over the year. South Belfast remained the most expensive, followed by the east, north and west.

North Down - £243,191 was down by 12.9% on the quarter but up 20.2% over the year.

Lisburn - £285,153 was stable over the quarter and rose by 23.4% over the year.

East Antrim - £216,897 represented a 2.6% quarterly fall but an increase of 32.1% over the year.

Antrim/Ballymena - £209,014, down 5.9% over the quarter but up by 7.6% over the year.

Coleraine/Limavady/North Coast, - £279,918, dropped 2.1% over the quarter but was up 40.9% over the year.

Derry/Strabane - £209,273 held up on a quarterly basis and showed a growth of 20.6% over a year, but sales were low.

Mid-Ulster - £218,120, a fall of 25.5% over the quarter and down 0.6% on the year, reversing previous unsustainable rates of growth.

Enniskillen/Fermanagh/South Tyrone - £210,810 was up 10.2% over the quarter but down by 5.3% over the year. These trends were influenced by the small sales volume for the final quarter of 2007.

Craigavon/Armagh - £227,706, down 5.7% on the quarter before but up 25.9% over the year.

Mid and South Down, the average of £256,259 was down by 2.1% over the quarter but up 15.8% annually.

Digital-Princess wrote:

Mid-Ulster - £218,120, a fall of 25.5% over the quarter and down 0.6% on the year, reversing previous unsustainable rates of growth.

Mid and South Down, the average of £256,259 was down by 2.1% over the quarter but up 15.8% annually.

um....I always thought I lived in mid-Ulster but maybe it's mid-down? Does "mid-down" even exist

Anyway, good price falls if you're looking to purchase in the coming years

apparently there is a road in north london where the average house price is 6.8 million quid