The latest Northern Ireland Residential Property Price Index shows that overall average house prices increased 3.1% quarter-on-quarter and 4.4% year-on-year.
Two-speed market
However, looking more closely at the data reveals that there is a two-speed market going on, with the average price of new build homes rising significantly faster than that of existing or resold housing stock.
New build prices rising faster
New build prices are up by 25% in the past two years, compared to 10% for existing or resold properties.
New build prices at 8-year high
This means that new build prices are at an eight-year high, and are now less than one-third below their peak in Q3 2007. Meanwhile the average price of existing or resold stock is still 45% below its peak.
Urban, rural divide
Interestingly, there is also divergence between urban and rural areas, with average prices in rural areas up 6.3% in the past year, compared to 3.7% for urban areas. And Belfast saw the slowest rate of growth of the Northern Ireland regions (year-on-year).