Average house price is £149k

The figure is revealed in the latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, covering the second quarter of 2010.

For the Coleraine/Limavady/North Coast region the overall average price of 149,299 was down over a year by 18.3% continuing the trend in the previous survey.

Major contributors to this decline were the very low average prices of terraced and townhouses at 77,750 and apartments at 103,788.

The Northern Ireland housing market is demonstrating erratic and uneven behaviour, according to the region’s most comprehensive survey of house prices.

The survey showed that over the previous year there had been an annual weighted rate of price growth of 2.4% but compared with the first quarter of the year the overall average house price actually showed a weighted decline of 2.5%.

According to the authors of the report Professor Alastair Adair, Professor Stanley McGreal and Dr David McIlhatton: "The findings of the current survey highlight the erratic and uneven behaviour of the current housing market.

“On the positive side the small rate of annual price growth and the higher volume of transactions are welcomed signs. However, the weaker price performance during the spring quarter suggests that recovery of the housing market is fragile."