Efforts to reverse Northern Ireland's "brain drain" are being hit by the phenomenal growth in house prices, a property expert warned today.
Ex-patriots living and working elsewhere are being put off moving home by the dramatic escalation in prices of up to 65 per cent in the last 12 months.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) estimates that despite a more stable society and improving local economy, many are rejecting the opportunity to return home because of the cost of buying a place to live in what was once the cheapest housing region in the UK.
"Thousands of Northern Ireland natives living elsewhere are home for a Christmas and New Year holiday and might be enticed to make a permanent move back by our relative economic prosperity and more stable society," said RICS Northern Ireland director Ian Murray.
The private sector was currently performing well, there was major investment in towns and cities and the jobs market was quite strong, he said, so there were numerous attractions to relocating in Northern Ireland.
However, he said: "The gap that existed between Northern Ireland house prices and those in GB and the Republic of Ireland a couple of years ago has closed, particularly in the last 12 months.
"Average Northern Ireland house prices are now above those in many other regions of the UK - including Scotland, Wales, the East Midlands, the North and North West of England - having risen almost three-fold in the past five years.
"The rate of local house price growth is far outstripping wage inflation, which is making the prospect of moving back to Northern Ireland less enticing than when house prices were much more affordable than in other areas," said Mr Murray.
The average Northern Ireland house now costs around stg£180,000 (€268,000), with average prices in South Belfast and Lisburn even higher at around £208,000 and £226,000 respectively.
Some estimates put current house price inflation at £100 a day as they catch up with the UK average price at £195,000.