Northern Ireland property market reports slowdown

Permalink: Northern Ireland property market reports slowdown
by Kay Murchie

June was the third consecutive month in which house-price inflation in Northern Ireland slowed. Given that Northern Ireland has been one of the UK’s property hotspots, the slowdown is rather significant.

During 2006, property prices rose by almost 40% and prices have doubled in some regions over the last 2 years. According to the Nationwide Building Society, the average price of a property is now £230,000 in Northern Ireland.

A study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Ulster Bank showed that the majority of chartered surveyors in Northern Ireland have reported a slowdown. 40% said month-on-month house-price growth had slowed to between 0% and 2% in June, whereas a further 21% said house prices had not altered at all between May and June.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors commented that the
slowdown is being made worse by an increasing amount of investors selling up to invest their money into less-inflated property markets. A spokesperson for RICS said that the residential property market has changed significantly in the last 3 months. The position has switched from houses selling in a matter of days to now taking weeks rather than days.

However, RICS commented that despite the growth tailing off, house price inflation in Northern Ireland is still the fastest of all the UK regions in June.