MORTGAGE sales in Northern Ireland slumped by nearly 9 per cent in October, making it the worst-performing region in the UK, according to data from Equifax Touchstone.
Its analysis of the intermediary marketplace found that the Home Counties and South Coast in England were the only regions to report mortgage sales growth last month (up 2.5 per cent and 1 per cent respectively).
But Northern Ireland and Scotland saw the biggest slump at minus-8.7 per cent and minus-5.2 per cent respectively.
Across the whole of the UK buy-to-let mortgage sales for the month fell by 5.3 per cent (down £153.7m) on September to £2.8 billion, while residential figures for October remained the same as the previous month, at £12.2 billion.
When comparing January to October this year to the same 10 months in 2015, there has been an overall increase in total mortgage sales of £6.2 billion (up 4.4 per cent).
Iain Hill, relationship manager at Equifax Touchstone, said: “The drop in buy-to-let figures this month is disappointing following strong market growth in August and September.
"It is likely that factors including political uncertainty stemming from Brexit and caution around the Bank of England interest rate plans are contributing to a highly unpredictable market environment.
“However, mortgage sales growth in the Home Counties and South Coast, and the significant increase in overall mortgage sales for the year are promising signs for an upturn in the market for the remainder of 2016.
"With six weeks left to year-end, it will be interesting to see where sales figures go from here.”
The data from Equifax Touchstone, which covers the majority of the intermediated lending market, shows that the average value of a residential mortgage in October was £191,926 (2015: £186,505) and £161,021 for buy-to-let (2015: £158,000).
