Northern Ireland house prices fall, figures show

House prices fall for the first time in three years according to figures

House prices in Northern Ireland saw their first quarterly fall in more than three years in the final quarter of 2022.

The official House Price Index saw a 0.5% decline compared to the third quarter.

However, prices were still more than 10% higher compared to the same period in 2021.

There was turmoil in the UK mortgage market in the final quarter of 2022 after the disastrous "mini budget".

The cost of mortgage borrowing jumped as financial markets anticipated that the Bank of England would raise interest rates sharply to counter the inflationary impact of extra spending in the mini-budget.

That meant fewer transactions and various UK-wide surveys have suggested prices have been falling in recent months.

Earlier this month, the chief executive of Danske Bank, one of NI's major mortgage lenders, told the BBC the bank was also anticipating a price "correction" in NI.

Prices in Newry, Mourne and Down fell by 2.7% over the quarter but in Fermanagh and Omagh there was a quarterly increase of 1.5%.

All property types saw prices fall over the final quarter of 2022: detached by -0.8%, semi-detached properties by -0.2%, terrace properties by -0.4% and apartments by -1.1%.

'Exceptionally busy'

The overall average price was £175,234 compared to £176,138 in the third quarter.

House prices in Northern Ireland rose steadily throughout the pandemic and its aftermath and are now about 25% higher than at the start of 2020.

The market was exceptionally busy in 2021 with more than 30,000 transactions but returned to a more normal level in 2022 with about 25,000 transactions.