HOUSE prices in Northern Ireland have started to fall for the first time in three years, the official government measure of the property market has confirmed.
The average price of a home in the north during the final quarter of 2022 was £175,234, down 0.5 per cent from the third quarter (£176,138).
But the average home still cost £16,161 more (10.2 per cent) than it did a year earlier, according to the NI House Price Index.
Seven of the north’s 11 council areas experienced price falls in the last quarter, with Newry, Mourne and Down (-2.7 per cent) and Belfast (-1.9 per cent) recording the most significant drops.
Derry City and Strabane district, where the price of the average home fell by 1 per cent to £153,244, was again the cheapest place to buy.
But not all areas registered a fall in prices. Two of the most expensive places to buy saw prices continue to climb.
The average home in Lisburn & Castlereagh rose by 1 per cent in the last quarter to £208,333, making it once again the most expensive place on average to buy in the north.
Ards and North Down, where the average home costs £201,171, saw prices rise by 1.3 per cent.
Fermanagh and Omagh (1.5 per cent) and Mid and East Antrim (1 per cent) also registered price increases.
The house price index, which is compiled by Land & Property Services (LPS) with the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (Nisra), showed price falls across all four classes of residential property.
The average detached house sold for £267,013 (-0.8 per cent); semi-detached £169,656 (-0.2 per cent); terrace £122,117 (0.4 per cent); and apartment £127,868 (-1.1 per cent).
In all, the index recorded 6,142 residential property sales across the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022, 639 down on Q4 2021.
However, the Q4 2022 figure will be revised upwards as more details of sales are reported.
