Average price of a Derry house is £125,616 but 80% fall in sales predicted as COVID-19 'pauses the housing market'

Results from the Northern Ireland House Price Index for the first quarter of 2020 show that there were 303 verified residential property sales in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area in the months January to March.

Twelve apartments, 88 detached houses, 114 semi-detached houses and 89 terraced houses were sold over the period. The £125,616 average price was down by 1.1 per cent from the last quarter of 2019 but was up 3.3 per cent from the same period last year.

The average price for a house in the north is now £140,580 and ranges from £125,188 in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon to £165,294 in Lisburn and Castlereagh.

In Causeway Coast and Glens there was a six per cent year-on-year rise and the average price of a house in that area is now £151,902.

The data was compiled by the Department of Finance's Land & Property Services assisted by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

LPS said that due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the housing market it has decided to suspend publication of the April - June 2020 (Q2 2020) NI House Price Index, originally due to be released in August.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has essentially paused the housing market. The number of sales for Q1 2020 has not been adversely affected as the lockdown happened in the last week of March.

"However it is expected that the number of sales recorded for April - June 2020 will be greatly reduced (by as much as 80%) and therefore the NI HPI reports for Q2 2020 onwards will be suspended until the housing market resumes and a sufficient amount of data can be collected," said the agency.