Average house price at £149,263

THE overall average sale price for property in the Londonderry to Strabane area has increased slightly over the year by 0.2 per cent, the latest statistics have shown, suggesting that the market has bottomed-out.

Terraced/townhouses at 139,429 show a significant price increase over the year indicating that Northern Ireland’s housing market is improving, with the number of transactions at their highest for the past two years according to the latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index, produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. The statistics show the rate at which house prices were falling had dropped from 35 per cent at the start of 2009 to just below 7 per cent at the end of the year.

The price statistics are based on a sample of 1,050 transactions in the fourth quarter of last year and the report shows there had been a significant increase in the number of sales from recent surveys, suggesting a recovery in the market could be underway.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The survey put the overall average price of a house in Northern Ireland in the fourth quarter of 2009 at 161,429. This represented a weighted decrease of 0.9 per cent compared to the average price in third quarter but represented a slight increase on the average price for the second quarter. The report said this type of variability was to be expected as the market recovers in a slightly hesitant manner.

The survey again showed property was becoming more affordable, with 57 per cent of all properties selling at or below 150,000.

The latest survey again confirmed the problems of getting the resale market fully functioning, with newly-built houses, at 32 per cent of the total, taking a disproportionately large percentage of the sales.

Examining the long-term picture, the rate of annual decline in the fourth quarter of 2009 was substantially lower for most types of property. There were two exceptions – the apartment sector, with an average price of 124,597, had a higher rate of annual decline of 18.9 per cent, while the detached house sector, with an average of 250,119 showed modest growth of 1.2 per cent over the year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For terraced/townhouses the overall rate of annual decline reduced significantly to 7.4%, with an average price in the fourth quarter of 124,904.

Semi-detached houses showed a similar rate of decline, down 7.8% to an average of 153,140.

The average price of detached bungalows was 197,541, down by 9.5% over the year, and semi-detached bungalows declined by only 3.9% to 133,983.

looking at the short-term performance, comparing prices in the fourth quarter with those in the third quarter, was variable and confirmed the unevenness of the market recovery. Four sectors showed an increase in average sale prices: Terraced/townhouses up by 9.7 per cent; semi-detached houses by 2.3 per cent; semi-detached bungalows by 12.8 per cent, and detached bungalows by 5.2 per cent. In contrast, detached houses were down by 7.9 per cent and apartments by 13.7 per cent over the quarter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At a regional level there were also some tentative signs of recovery but the evidence was variable and rather uneven.

Over the year all sectors experienced lower average prices with the exception of terraced/townhouses which were up by 0.8 per cent to 138,040. Detached houses were down by 3 per cent to 302,114 and semi-detached house fell by 9.3 per cent to 179,992. The largest decline was for apartments, falling 23.5 per cent to 130,355.

The highest priced city location was south Belfast at 203,649). By comparison, for Londonderry and Strabane the overall average of 149,263 was marginally up by 0.2 per cent suggesting the market had bottomed out. In the latest survey the terraced/townhouse market showed a significant price increase over the year to 139,429.

For the Coleraine/Limavady/North Coast region the overall average price of 163,684 was slightly up over the year by 0.9 per cent. All sectors of the market showed improvement. Apartments, in contrast to other areas of Northern Ireland, showed a 27 per cent rise in average sale price over the year to 170,000.