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NI average house price set to hit £200k

John CampbellEconomics and business editor, BBC News NI
Getty Images There are four stacks of coins getting taller as you move from left to right across the image. On the tallest stack of coins there is a little light green plastic house. Getty Images

The average house price in Northern Ireland is set to pass £200,000 this year, new official figures suggest.

In the first quarter of this year the average price increased by 1.5% to just over £198,000.

That was the ninth quarter in a row that prices have risen.

The average price is already above £200,000 in five of NI's eleven local government districts.

The highest average is £233,000 in Lisburn and Castlereagh while the lowest is £174,000 in Mid and East Antrim.

The last time the average price across Northern Ireland was above £200,000 was in the first quarter of 2008.

That was at the tail end of an unsustainable property bubble that began in the mid-2000s.

By that stage the market was beginning to turn, and prices fell below the £200,000 mark in the second quarter of 2008, beginning a multi-year descent.

The current rise in prices reflects a relatively strong jobs market and a lack of new houses being built.