DEMAND for housing is continuing to outstrip supply in the north, a new survey among property professionals suggests.
The latest monthly residential market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Ulster Bank pointed to a rising demand for housing in February, while the supply of available homes seems to have decreased.
The professional body said the lack of supply appears to be impacting sales, which were reported to be flat during February.
Meanwhile constraints on supply is in turn pushing prices up further.
The latest official data from HMRC showed a quieter start to 2022 for the Northern Ireland housing market when compared with 2021.
Some 2,030 residential property deals were done in January, which was 11.4 per cent down on January 2021.
But the market was still performing better than pre-covid levels, with January 2022 sales six per cent up on January 2020 and 17 per cent higher than in January 2019.
RICS regional representative, Samuel Dickey, said: “We’re seeing the same pattern as we saw in the latter half of 2021 with new buyer enquiries on the rise but the fall in new instruction indicates that the supply is not in line with the demand.
“In saying that, there is a sense of optimism for the market with the expected rise in new sales over the coming months suggesting that surveyors do expect more stock to come on the market.”
Ulster Bank’s head of personal banking, Terry Robb, said the lender is also seeing new homebuyers becoming increasingly conscious of energy efficiency, in part linked to the cost of living crisis.
