House prices in ABC area at highest since 2007 property crash

THE average property price in Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council area is now £165,470.

It means the area has among the lowest property prices in the province, sitting in 8th place of the 11 Local Government Districts.

The figures were contained in the quarterly House Price Index report released by Land & Property Services assisted by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

The Index measures changes in the price of residential property sold in Northern Ireland (NI). The Index uses Stamp Duty information on residential property sales recorded by HMRC.

Results for the most recent quarter (April - June 2024), which are provisional, show property prices on the rise.

In Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon the average house price was £165,740, giving a house price index of 167.9 - up 2.4 per cent on the previous quarter.

The figures show the house price index increased by 7.6 per cent over the year.

For neighbouring Newry, Mourne and Down the average house price was £202,524, that gives a house price index of 180 (up eight per cent on the previous quarter and an increase of 8.9 per cent on the previous year).

The figures also contain data stretching back to 2005, when the average house price in the ABC area was £114,415.

In the NMD area the standardised price was £139,092.

Property values reached their highest in 2007, just before the market crash when a property in the ABC area would have set you back £212,065, they reached their lowest in the last quarter of 2012, with a value of £84,527.

In the NMD area the high in 2007 was £240,247 and values reached their lowest ebb in the first quarter of 2013 with a price of £99,325.

Between Q1 (January-March) 2024 and Q2 (April -June) 2024 the house price index increased by 3.6 per cent provincewide.

Between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024 the house price index increased by 6.4 per cent.

The average price for a house in Northern Ireland is now £185,025 and ranges from £163,836 in Derry City and Strabane to £215,464 in Lisburn and Castlereagh.

The figures are based on 5,064 residential properties sold during Q2 2024.

The House Price Index is now 66.8% higher than Q1 2015 (the reference period).

The report includes trends in the property markets in each council area across NI.

The Index value for Q2 2024 for NI is 166.8 and ranges from 157.7 in Ards and North Down to 192.5 in Causeway Coast and Glens.

The NI House Price Index series is used as the NI component of the single official UK HPI and the statistics are comparable with other UK regions.

The NI House Price Index was awarded Accredited Official Statistics status on 18 September 2018. Accredited official statistics have been judged to comply with the Code of Practice by the Office for Statistics Regulation, as the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.