The Housing Executive

As the strategic housing authority we want to make sure that there is as much choice as possible in the housing market.

Each year our housing market report brings together the most recent market intelligence, drawing on our latest statistics as well as those of other government departments and the private sector. Summaries of the key findings of our housing research are also included.

The review provides an insight into the housing market in Northern Ireland, and sets out our response to trends within the market.

This is the sixteenth consecutive year that the review has been published. Its publication takes place against a background of major ongoing challenges for housing in Northern Ireland. The economic crisis and the concomitant labour market uncertainties have created significant pressures in the housing market, reflected in the difficulties faced by potential first-time buyers attempting to enter owner occupancy and lenders having the confidence to grant them new mortgages. The much tighter public expenditure environment will act to exert downward pressure on the already low levels of activity and the downward drift in house prices.

Chapter 1 provides the strategic context for Northern Ireland’s housing market. It begins by looking at the Programme for Government and public expenditure on housing. It examines Northern Ireland’s economy in the context of important developments in the world economy, and particularly in the Eurozone. It also summarises the most recent socio-demographic data, which are often seen as having the most direct impact on trends in the housing market.

Chapters 2 – 4 analyse developments in each of the three main housing tenures: in owner occupation, the private rented sector and social housing. The most recent statistics and trends are examined as the basis for estimating how each of the tenures will develop in the coming three year period, in the context of the strategic factors set out in Chapter 1. Each chapter ends by highlighting the key issues emerging from the analysis and the strategic perspective.

Finally, the short conclusion summarises the key trends and factors which will help determine Northern Ireland’s housing market over the coming three years and highlights the housing priorities which emerge from the document as a whole.