Ups and downs for city prices

Presented in partnership with the Housing Executive as a snapshot of Northern Ireland’s residential property market performance July-September, the report shows Lisburn’s overall average house price to be down by 1.9% on the third quarter of 2014 but up 3.8% on the second quarter of 2015.

Detached houses achieve a high average price of £241,591, but have dropped back by 5.7% in comparison to the third quarter of 2014. In contrast, semi-detached houses, with an average price of £144,751, are up 5.2% over the year.

Overall, the research paints an optimistic picture of Northern Ireland’s housing market, indicating an increase in house prices and sales volume across the province for the third quarter of 2015, both over the year and since the second quarter of 2015.

The overall average house price of £154,376 has increased 7.8% since the third quarter of 2014 and the short-term quarterly change captures the strengthened market conditions with an increase of 5.3%.

According to the research, market share by property type is broadly consistent with recent surveys, with semi-detached houses remaining the most popular, at an average cost of £140,383, followed by detached houses, terrace/townhouses, apartments, detached bungalows and semi-detached bungalows, which all saw an increase in price on the same quarter last year.

Semi-detached bungalows were the only property type that did not experience higher price levels since the second quarter of 2015, seeing a decrease of 1.5%.

The share of newly built property remained at 18% in line with the second quarter of 2015, again reportedly signalling a steady recovery in private sector housing development.

At a regional level the strengthened housing market was reflected in most areas either through increased average price or growth in sales volumes.