NEW government data showed activity in the north’s residential property market picked up during March following the weakest start to a year in a decade.
Just 3,250 homes were sold in Northern Ireland during January and February 2023, according to HMRC.
That was the weakest opening two months to a year here since 2013.
But the latest provisional housing market data showed 2,150 residential transactions recorded during March.
While down on the same month from the previous two years, it was on par with the March average for the three years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It follows PropertyPal’s first quarter data for 2023, which similarly showed a recovery in sales during March.
The listing site’s chief operating officer, Jordan Buchanan, said the market in the first two months of the year appeared to respond with caution to the economic turbulence of late 2022.
“However, economic stabilisation and an improved outlook has led to a significant increase in home sales in March, surpassing pre-Covid-19 averages by 4 per cent and resulting in properties transacting one week faster than usual,” he said.
PropertyPal’s data showed house prices on the whole were still rising in early 2023, although the average price of apartments and new build houses did decrease between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023.
Meanwhile, HMRC’s latest figures showed a strong start to the year for the non-residential property market here.
Some 450 non-residential property deals were done in March 2023. That made it the busiest March in Northern Ireland since 2007.
The 930 deals recorded in the opening quarter also left it as the busiest first three months in Northern Ireland since 2008.
