A North Belfast estate agent has said that traders in the housing market are becoming realistic about the value of their homes in the area. The comments come after the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) released its latest housing Market Survey on Tuesday 12 June that recording its lowest reading on house prices since November 2010.
The RICS survey follows a similar house price index published by the University of Ulster, which revealed North Belfast had the lowest average price in Northern Ireland at £86,051.
Barbara Shanks, owner of Shanks estate agents &Co. said lower prices have been accepted as the going rate.
“It is true that prices are still dropping but more transactions are being made at the current rates. People have realised that the economy needs to stabilise and it is encouraging to see a higher level of trade.”
RICS Northern Ireland housing spokesman, Tom McClelland, says said that any price drops now will not be of a significant margin as we have already reached a base level.
“The market is correcting itself as we adapt to a new reality in a rebalanced economy. In line with the wider economic conditions, particularly in the Eurozone, May was a difficult month for the housing market.
“However, it was not all bad news, with many surveyors reporting stable prices and a significant minority seeing transactions rising and expecting them to rise in the three months ahead.”
The RICS survey stated that, with regard to price expectations, one third of respondents said prices will fall in the three months ahead and two thirds say they will remain the same.
“It is true that prices are still dropping but more transactions are being made at the current rates.”
