Steady Growth In NI Housing Market

Finance Minister Simon Hamilton MLA has welcomed clear evidence of the continuing stability and steady growth in the Northern Ireland housing market.

The Northern Ireland Residential Property Price Index (NI RPPI), produced by the Department of Finance and Personnel's Land & Property Services (LPS) in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), is published on a quarterly basis.

Commenting on the findings Mr Hamilton said: "I welcome the latest quarterly Residential Property Price Index Report, and the valuable, reliable insight it provides into our local property market.

"The Report provides further evidence of steady, balanced growth from the low point of early 2013, with residential property prices now showing an increase of 7% over the last four quarters. Analysis from the most recent quarter shows that prices increased by 3%.

"The increasing confidence of buyers in the market is also demonstrated by the rising level of transactions. It is encouraging that almost 4,200 residential properties were sold during the first quarter of 2014. This represented a 21% increase on the number sold in the first quarter of 2013 and was the highest number of first quarter sales recorded since 2007. Over the last twelve months there have been almost 17,500 transactions."

(CVS/CD)