Survey: Northern Ireland house prices up 14.6 percent in first quarter

According to a new survey by Nationwide, average house prices in the UK rose by a seasonally adjusted 2.2 percent in the first quarter of 2007 to £175,554. This brings the annual percentage increase in house prices to 9.5 percent. In the previous quarter, the average price of a home was at £172,065, the building society says.

The biggest quarterly change came in Northern Ireland, where prices were up 14.6 percent in the quarter to £203,815, a leap of 57.6 percent over the year. In Belfast, the average house costs £262,965, an annual increase of 61 percent. This brings house prices in that city to within shouting distance of the average price of a house in London, which rose by 4.4 percent in the quarter and 14.3 percent over the year to £280,995.

Scotland saw a quarterly increase of 2.7 percent in prices, with the average price of a house there up to £140,929, an annual increase of 15.2 percent. Wales was the region with the smallest quarterly change, with prices up by only 0.8 percent in the quarter to an average of £150,017 for an annual increase of 6.1 percent.

In England as a whole, house prices were up by 2.3 percent in the quarter, for an annual increase of 8.7 percent to £193,759. London was, as usual, the most expensive area in England to buy a home, while the least expensive region was the North, where house prices actually fell back by 0.4 percent in the quarter to an average of £129,378. Even with the decline, though, house prices were up by 4.8 percent over a year. The biggest drop in house prices, though, came in Nottingham, in the East Midlands. Average house prices there were down by 2 percent over the quarter and over the year to £144,954.

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