Falling house prices boost North's first-time buyers

First-time buyers have been boosted by tumbling house prices in the North, a survey revealed today.

The latest housing market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) for November said more than 80% of properties had seen prices fall.

As many as 26% of surveyors said prices had fallen by as much as 8%.

However, estate agents in the North warned the report should be treated with caution.

The Ulster Bank’s Head of Mortgages Derek Wilson said: “First-time buyers will be increasingly encouraged by the opportunities presented by more realistic asking prices and further interest rate cuts, which many are predicting, would certainly help.”

RICS Northern Ireland housing spokesman Tom McClelland said: “House price decline was reported across the UK in November, with confidence in the market low in the wake of the recent credit crunch.

“A period of slowdown was inevitable as the market reached a level that could not be sustained by first-time buyers.”

Mr McClelland added that lower interest rates and more realistic asking prices will allow first-time buyers greater access to the market.

The findings were, however, challenged by estate agents who said prices were falling in certain areas but not all.

Samuel Dickey, a partner at Gerry O’Connor Estate Agents, said: “You can’t really give a generic answer to whether house prices are coming down. Each individual property is different so you have to look at each case.

“I don’t think we are in a position where we can say just yet.”

Beth Robinson of Templeton Robinson Estate Agents said: “In certain areas I think prices have come back a bit but I always find that in these surveys they take certain figures and apply them across the board to different areas.

“It is extremely hard to judge anything at the moment because frankly November and December are quiet months anyway.”