Northern Irish property market the most upbeat in UK

Fewer people wanted to sell their homes in Northern Ireland last month but the North’s housing market is continuing to “outperform” the rest of the UK, latest industry research shows.

House prices, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), fell across the UK during November with London and southeast England taking the biggest hit in property values.

But in the North it was a much more upbeat property market as prices continued to rise, the latest RICS/Ulster Bank Northern Ireland residential market survey shows with an increase in the number of newly agreed sales during November compared with October.

Although the survey noted an increase in new buyer inquiries, it did not record a corresponding increase in the number of people wanting to sell their homes. Instead new instructions to sell properties fell last month in the North.

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But overall, local surveyors remain decidedly more optimistic than their counterparts across the UK, and Northern Ireland is the only region where surveyors are predicting a further hike in property values.

Positive year

RICS spokesman Samuel Dickey said: “Overall 2018 is shaping up to have been a relatively positive year for the housing market in Northern Ireland in a number of respects. House prices look to have risen at healthy rate and activity in various segments of the market has been relatively good, albeit that there are regional variations.

“One thing, though, that does continue to be a feature is the lack of supply. We need to see more new homes being built, and more resale properties would need to become available to meet demand.”

Latest government statistics from the North’s Land & Property Services agency showed the average price of a house in the North in the third quarter was £135,060 (€149,078) and the median house price was 4.8 times median annual gross full-time earnings in Northern Ireland.