HOUSE PRICES fell faster in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK in the second quarter of this year, according to new industry figures which show property prices plummeted by more than 18 per cent.
The latest Nationwide House Price Survey reveals a sharp drop in property prices across all sectors of the market in the North.
According to the building society, a typical property in the UK recorded a fall of 4 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2008. But in Northern Ireland there was a much more dramatic decline in prices.
Nationwide claims its figures suggest house prices fell by 18.6 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter - following a fall of 3.4 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter.
It says the average price of a house in Northern Ireland now stands at £183,476 (€231,565); this time last year the average price was in the region of £215,000.
House prices fell in 12 out of the 13 UK regions profiled in the building society's latest house price survey, with only the Scottish market showing any resilience.
Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said the Northern Ireland market had shown the "steepest correction" in house prices across the UK. Ms Earley said the sharp movement down in prices had to be taken in the context of "unusually sharp increases in prices during 2006-2007".
She said that, in these two years, property prices in the North had soared by 79 per cent. "These increases were clearly not sustainable and left the market in Northern Ireland particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as the financial market downturn that began last August." The upside was that a typical property was still worth more than at the end of 2006, she added.
