Northern house prices rise again but remain below 2007 peak

Enthusiastic house buyers helped to drive up the price of a home in the North again last month, delivering the highest rates of newly agreed sales in the UK. Property values remain significantly below their 2007 peak, however, a new residential market survey shows.

Solid sales in the North during August sustained an unbroken 60-month pattern of rising house prices, according to the Royal Institute of Charter Surveyors’ (RICS) survey. It also noted that while there was “robust price growth” in the North and Scotland, other parts of the UK suffered a decline in house prices last month, with London and the South East the hardest hit.

In contrast, the RICS survey suggests that buyer appetite in the North remains strong and although house prices have risen in the last five years, the “market remains relatively more affordable than elsewhere across the UK”.

Average price

According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency the average price of a home in the North during quarter two of this year was £132,795 (€149,000). This compares to an average of £230,000 at the height of the property boom.

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The RICS said feedback from its members in the North indicates that current sales trends will continue - 48 per cent of Northern Ireland surveyors who took part in the latest survey said they had seen price rises in the past three months and 45 per cent expect house prices to rise again the next three months.