Business

House prices to stay steady

NO REAL movement in house prices is expected over the summer months, according to surveyors, however many forsee an upturn in the number of homes sold.

Every respondent to the latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Ulster Bank housing market survey said they thought prices would remain the same during June, July and August.

Almost one in three meanwhile said they expected transaction volumes to increase over the same period.

Results of the survey also pointed to a slight reduction in prices over the past three months.

Just over half of those asked said transactions had stayed at the same level with the remainder saying there was an increase.

Housing spokesman for RICS Northern Ireland Tom M cClelland said: "The trend has been one of easing price falls and modestly rising transaction volumes, and we expect this to continue over the year as a whole.

"The stabilisation in prices has been encouraging greater activity, albeit we are still some way off what would be considered healthy trans action volumes."

Derek Wilson, head of lending products at Ulster Bank said the bank had "provided over £1.5 billion of mortgage lending into the Northern Ireland housing market since the property price peak".

"As the market continues to stabilise and activity rises, we remain strongly committed to supporting homebuyers, movers and remortgagers and we are introducing more choice for customers in our mortgage offerings to help consumers get the best deal for their individual circumstances," he added.

House prices in the north have more than halved since the collapse in 2007, however there have been signs of a turnaround in recent months.

Several surveys suggested a return to growth, although official statistic revealed prices were still in decline, albeit at a much slower rate.

Land and Property Services' house price index put the average cost of buying a home at £109,000, down 6 per cent over the year to March.

The most recent University of Ulster house price survey meanwhile found the average cost of a new home to be £131,000, a rise of 2 per cent over a year.