N-Ireland house prices could soar by third

Northern Ireland house prices 'could soar by almost a third'

A newspaper in Northern Ireland is reporting a claim by a land agent that the average house price in the province could soar by 30 per cent over the coming year. Mark Patterson, a partner at land agents O'Connor Kennedy Turtle, has told the Belfast Telegraph that a number of multi-million pound residential property sales at auctions across Ulster are very significant.

The property boom, which is most evident in Belfast, Lisburn and the north coast, is being driven by developers keen to cash in on the buoyant housing market, according to Mr Patterson. He told the newspaper: 'We're witnessing high levels of confidence and there's little sign of this edging off.

'Since March, we've handled over £36 million worth of residential land sales - this peaked in the last couple of weeks of June when £20 million of land went under the hammer.' The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors states that 98 per cent of chartered surveyors operating in Northern Ireland's residential housing sector have reported price increases in the last quarter.