New Dwelling Starts Drop 35%

The total number of new dwelling starts in Northern Ireland has fallen by 35% over the year, according to the latest Northern Ireland Housing Bulletin.

The figures, for October - December 2013, show that the number of new starts was 918, a decrease of 17% (185) on the previous quarter (July – September 2013) and 35% (485) on the same quarter in 2012.

The total number of new dwelling completions was 2,045, indicating a drop of 15% (349) on the same quarter in 2012.

In total, 4,667 households presented as homeless to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive during October to December 2013. This was a decrease of 165 (3%) on the previous quarter.

The number of households accepted by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive as full duty applicants for the quarter was 1,931, a fall of 12% compared to the previous quarter.

Between Quarter 3 (July – September) 2013 and Quarter 4 (October – December) 2013, residential property prices remained the same.

Over the year to the end of December 2013, residential property prices rose 4%.

Residential property prices are now 9% lower than Quarter 1 in 2005, and less than half of the peak value of the housing market in Quarter 3 in 2007.

During the fourth quarter of 2013 there were 4,827 verified residential property sales, incidating a 28% increase on the number sold in the fourth quarter of 2012. It is the highest number of quarterly sales recorded since 2007.

(IT)