Lisburn house prices buck the trend with year on year rise

The latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index, which is produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, revealed the overall average sale price of houses in Lisburn now stands at £160,291, a rise of over 8% since last year.

According to the report, Lisburn has performed better than the overall Northern Ireland market where the overall average was £137,219 - a weighted rate of annual decline of 10.7%. Quarterly performance was also weaker, with a weighted price decline of 2.6% in the final three months of 2011.

However, the number of house sales in Northern Ireland continued to show a rise in the final quarter of 2011.

The latest figures showed the number of transactions in October, November and December was 960 compared with 684 in the same quarter in 2010.

The figure is lower than the previous two quarters of 1,133 and 1,062 respectively, reflecting the quieter winter sales period, but a significant improvement on the year suggesting that the limited market recovery in terms of sales had not stalled.

The authors of the report - Professor Alastair Adair, Professor Stanley McGreal and Dr David McIlhatton - said: “The Northern Ireland housing market has closed the year in much the same way as it started. Although the market is showing some tentative signs of stabilisation, it is still rather thin in terms of transaction levels with average prices tending to be lower rather than higher.

“This survey shows that recovery in the Northern Ireland housing market is still not deeply embedded and remains vulnerable to economic circumstances and to the seasonal vagaries of the market which become more apparent during periods of thin market conditions.”