01/05/2007
UU students highlight soaring home prices
As house prices continue to soar in Northern Ireland, final year housing management students at the University of Ulster are holding a conference to debate the burning issue of affordability.
Housing experts and representatives of the province's political parties will discuss the problems facing young people, in particular, in getting onto the property-owning ladder.
The conference 'Affordability: Affordable For Who' is being held on Friday, May 4 at the Balmoral Hotel, Blacks Road in the south of Belfast.
Keynote speakers include Paddy McIntyre, Chief Executive of the NI Housing Executive; Michael Sands from the Department for Social Development; Terry Coates of the Chartered Institute of Housing; Paddy Gray, Senior Lecturer School of the Built Environment, UU; and Patrick O'Hagan from CPS Estate Agents.
One of the organising committee, Andrew Breslin, said: "These experts will give us the most up-to-date information on affordability; how they view the issue and what the future holds for first time buyers like our final year group.
"We want to show our elected politicians, some of whom will take part in a panel discussion on affordability, the depth of concern that currently exists. We hope that by highlighting the issue and targeting political representatives that some action will be taken to relieve the affordability stress on the people of Northern Ireland.
"In many respects the main victims of the soaring cost of housing will be the young people who are now seeking to buy their own homes. Many of these young people are being priced out of the market by buy-to-let investors.
"There is the additional problem of families on low incomes who are at risk because of the higher rents being charged in the private rented sector."
(JM/SP)
Housing experts and representatives of the province's political parties will discuss the problems facing young people, in particular, in getting onto the property-owning ladder.
The conference 'Affordability: Affordable For Who' is being held on Friday, May 4 at the Balmoral Hotel, Blacks Road in the south of Belfast.
Keynote speakers include Paddy McIntyre, Chief Executive of the NI Housing Executive; Michael Sands from the Department for Social Development; Terry Coates of the Chartered Institute of Housing; Paddy Gray, Senior Lecturer School of the Built Environment, UU; and Patrick O'Hagan from CPS Estate Agents.
One of the organising committee, Andrew Breslin, said: "These experts will give us the most up-to-date information on affordability; how they view the issue and what the future holds for first time buyers like our final year group.
"We want to show our elected politicians, some of whom will take part in a panel discussion on affordability, the depth of concern that currently exists. We hope that by highlighting the issue and targeting political representatives that some action will be taken to relieve the affordability stress on the people of Northern Ireland.
"In many respects the main victims of the soaring cost of housing will be the young people who are now seeking to buy their own homes. Many of these young people are being priced out of the market by buy-to-let investors.
"There is the additional problem of families on low incomes who are at risk because of the higher rents being charged in the private rented sector."
(JM/SP)
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