Property rollercoaster continues as Lisburn property rises by 12%

The latest University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index produced in partnership with Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, says the average price here now is 195,836. Only homes in North Down and South Belfast were more expensive.

Except for apartments, all sectors have experienced price gains, with terraced/townhouses up by 13.0% to 132,082; detached bungalows up by 18.5% to 248,500; and semi-detached houses up by 1.4% to 159,854.

The Lisburn figures buck the trend across the whole of Northern Ireland which 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%.

And 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. "

They say that on the positive side the small rate of annual price growth and the higher volume of transactions are welcome signs.

"However, the weaker price performance during the spring quarter suggests that recovery of the housing market is fragile" they add.

The statistics are based on a sample of 1,009 transactions in the second quarter of 2010 – appreciably larger than that for the first quarter of the year, which suggests a pick-up in transaction volume during a traditionally active quarter for the housing market. The survey put the overall average price of a house in Northern Ireland at 163,459.

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."