House prices decrease for first time since 2013

HOUSE prices in Northern Ireland have fallen for the first time in four years, it has been revealed.

The average cost dropped by 0.8% in the three months to the end of March compared to the previous quarter, bringing to an end a steady rally that had been in place since early 2013. The Northern Ireland House Price Index is considered one of the most accurate measures because it takes account of actual sales recorded by HMRC. It put the average price for a home at £124,007. That ranges from £85,713 for a terrace, £97,242 for an apartment, £121,098 for a semi-detached and £186,905 for a detached. However, the slight correction doesn’t mean the price rise has come to an end as they are still up 4.3% on last year. Richard Ramsey, pictured, the chief economist at Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland, said the rate of increase was always likely to fall as the momentum waned. He added: “Northern Ireland’s annual rate of house price growth has halved from 8.7% in Q4 2014 to 4.3% in Q1 2017. This was always going to happen with the larger gains occurring at the start of the house price recovery. “We can expect to see the rate of house price growth slow to around 2% to 3% year-on-year in the next 12 months or so.” Northern Ireland’s housing market witnessed one of the most dramatic price swings of any region in the world when the credit crunch began to bite in 2007. Between the third quarter of that year and the first quarter of 2013 average prices plummeted by 57%. During that time prices fell from a peak of £224,000 to £97,428.