Business

Publication of north's official house price index delayed due to staff shortages

The latest Northern Ireland house price index has been delayed "due to staff absences".
The latest Northern Ireland house price index has been delayed "due to staff absences". The latest Northern Ireland house price index has been delayed "due to staff absences".

THE publication of Northern Ireland’s official house price index has been delayed due to a shortage of staff.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday published the full year results of the official government measure of UK prices. It showed an annual rise of £27,000, taking the average UK house price to £275,000.

But the ONS was left to use out-of-date data for Northern Ireland, relating to the summer period, which put the price of an average home here at £159,109.

That’s because the publication of the fourth quarter report has been delayed due to staff absences at Land and Property Services (LPS).

The Northern Ireland house price index is the official measure the change in the price of residential property here.

The latest report was due to be published on Wednesday (February 16). LPS said it’s unable to confirm when it will be in a position to release its findings.

Unlike in Britain, where the ONS tracks the change in house prices on a month to month basis, the north’s official data is only produced on a quarterly basis, and published around six weeks after the end of the period it assesses.

Meanwhile data compiled by HMRC showed the north’s property market largely returned to pre-pandemic levels in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Some 2,620 residential property transactions were recorded in December, virtually the same as November, and slightly up on the 2,300 from October.

That followed a massive spike in sales in September 2021 ahead of the end of the stamp duty holiday. The 3,960 deals made it the busiest month for the housing market since June 2007.

September was one of the busiest months on record for the north’s housing market.