Northern Ireland Property News

A recent report commissioned and compiled by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in association with the Ulster Bank Residential Property Division highlights the continued success of the Northern Ireland residential property sector, but it also brings to light a number of problems that the success of the property market is now resulting in.

Northern Ireland property news has tended to be incredibly positive of late with statistics and facts showing that average residential real estate prices have continuously increased for the past sixteen years, but this continuous increase and the closing of the gap between the average price of a house in Northern Ireland compared to the median price of property in England means that more first time buyers are now being priced out of the market in certain popular areas of the country.

In the suburbs of Southern Belfast for example, first time buyers cannot get onto the property ladder as the property price gains are increasing in rapidity and overstepping the affordability gap quite substantially.  The fact that a large percentage of buyers are property investors capitalising on the lack of general affordability doesn’t help!  These property investors have found that there is a growing requirement for rental property in the Ireland property market as fewer people can now afford to buy their first home; these investors are buying to let to meet market demand but further exacerbating the underlying affordability problem.

Despite vociferous protestations from many first time buyers wishing to buy into the increasingly affluent suburbs of Northern Ireland that price gains cannot be sustained and property asking prices cannot be met, the success of the residential property market in Northern Ireland continues apace.

The survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Ulster Bank Residential Property Division revealed that 98% of all the surveyors working in the residential property sector witnessed property price increases in the second quarter of 2006.  Furthermore their feelings and that of the Nationwide Building Society who also recently revealed their Northern Ireland property news, is that strong local demand and national and international demand for investment property in Northern Ireland is fuelling the price increases and means that they remain sustainable for the time being.