In the heady days of before the recession, Northern Ireland's property market was one of the fastest growing in Europe. Back then, developers from the south were flooding the market with easy money and Belfast's skyline changed forever. The boom seemed it would never end, and many there thought that this was the much-vaunted peace dividend'. As we all now know, it wasn't meant to be. Prices crashed. In fact, they fell off a cliff and through the floor.
Although there are countless similar stories from across the UK, markets have rebounded - to an extent. Northern Ireland, though, has stagnated. A job market that's too dependent on poorly paid government jobs, high unemployment and a lack of private business investment has combined to pour cold water on an already struggling regional economy.
Meanwhile, south of the border, the market was in freefall. Building sites were shut down as demand dried up. This had ramifications north of the border too.
Things are now beginning to change. In a recent news report from Randstad, it was reported that the recovery, already apace in the UK, is also now well under way in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It goes on to say that this growth has been leading to shortages in supply, and increased charges. This has been backed up anecdotally with numerous reports that suppliers, who had been slashing prices just to bring in business to keep their doors open, are now upping their prices as demand comes back into the market.
This is good news for an industry that practically imploded, but there's a long way to go outside the larger cities, and in particular, Belfast. According to the Belfast Telegraph, house prices in Northern Ireland have risen by 8.4%, but that is still 50% lower than they were at the peak in 2007.
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