{"id":85147,"date":"2025-05-08T17:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85147\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T17:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:15:09","slug":"interest-rate-cut-expected-to-drive-more-activity-in-northern-ireland-housing-market-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85147\/","title":{"rendered":"Interest rate cut expected to drive more activity in Northern Ireland housing market \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cut in UK interest rates is expected to encourage even more activity in the Northern Ireland housing market following one of the busiest opening quarters in recent history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England\u2019s decision to lower the base rate from 4.5% to 4.25%<\/a> follows a slowdown in inflation in recent months.<\/p>\n

Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, said: \u201cInflationary pressures have continued to ease so we\u2019ve been able to cut rates again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuts to the base rate since last summer have contributed to an upsurge in house-buying activity in the north during recent months.<\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/a>\"Antrim-based<\/a><\/p>\n

HMRC figures indicate 7,130 homes were sold in the first three months of 2025, making it the second busiest opening quarter for the north\u2019s housing market since 2007.<\/p>\n

While increases in stamp duty from April 1 was a factor, the falling rate of interest has proved significant.<\/p>\n

Danske Bank has already revealed that lending approvals for first-time buyers in Northern Ireland increased 50% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bank said the expectation of the cut in interest rates this year resulted in two-thirds of those first-time buyers opting for two-year fixed rate mortgages.<\/p>\n

Recent analysis from PropertyPal put the average price paid by first time buyers in Northern Ireland at around \u00a3178,000 in early 2025.<\/p>\n

Based on a 10% deposit and a two-year fixed mortgage taken out over 30 years, PropertyPal estimated monthly repayments of \u00a3813 per month in February.<\/p>\n

The 0.25 percentage point cut is expected to cut around \u00a325 per month from that monthly total. <\/p>\n

But the recent increases in property prices are expected to more than offset potential savers for first time buyers.<\/p>\n

The latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) pointed to a sharp increase in new buyer enquiries during April.<\/p>\n

But property professionals continue to report shortages in supply.<\/p>\n

That high demand and low supply environment could drive house prices up further over the coming months.<\/p>\n

While they represent a small proportion of the Northern Ireland market, homeowners with a tracker mortgage can expect some savings in the wake of Thursday\u2019s interest rate cut, assuming that their lender passes on the base rate cut in full.<\/p>\n

Around 85% of outstanding UK mortgages are fixed rates – and homeowners on these deals will not see their rates change until they move onto a new deal.<\/p>\n

But many lenders have been chopping rates in recent weeks, including several offering deals at sub-4% levels.<\/p>\n

The last official house price index for Northern Ireland put the average price of a home at \u00a3183,259 in the final quarter of 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government-backed index uses sales data from Land and Property Services.<\/p>\n

The official index for the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 is due to be published in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Data from PropertyPal recently put the average house price in the north at \u00a3225,986 for Q1 2025. That price does not factor in new build homes sold during the period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cut in UK interest rates is expected to encourage even more activity in the Northern Ireland housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1269,40990,6791,478,8671,1144,10786,40991,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-85147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-house-prices","9":"tag-house-price-index","10":"tag-housing-market","11":"tag-interest-rates","12":"tag-mortgage-rates","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-property-prices","15":"tag-propertypal","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114473344969325909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}