House prices fall by 18% in Mid-Ulster

This is in contrast to the previous survey’s reported 2.5 per cent increase.

All property types have seen average prices fall over the year in the area with terraced/townhouses and semi-detached houses down by 3.9 per cent, detached houses down by 14.3 per cent; and detached bungalows down by five per cent.

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

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

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

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.

The price statistics are based on a sample of 1,009 transactions in the second quarter of 2010.

The economist Alan Bridle, Head of Economics and Research at Bank of Ireland Northern Ireland, said while recent evidence may indicate that average prices have returned to a more sustainable level, the impact on the housing market of impending spending cuts and budgetary restraints in Northern Ireland suggests the price risks are still to the downside.

“There is now a realism that a recovery to pre-crisis levels will only occur over an extended period of years,” he added.

“The sluggish trends in the house-buying market continue to mirror developments in the Private Rental Sector, which has experienced a rapid expansion in supply and choice over recent years. The ready availability of property to let has resulted in large part, in a tenants’ market with considerable choice and bargaining power and I would not anticipate a material shift in sentiment as we move towards 2011,” he said.

The survey indicated that the market is becoming increasingly affordable, with 61 per cent of properties selling at or below 150,000.

The highest priced city location was south Belfast (272,917), followed by the east (179,604), west (149,394) and north (129,699).