According to CML figures, first-time buyer (FTB) levels in NI have fallen to their lowest levels since 1980 on the back of rocketing house price inflation.
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FTBs accounted for just 8,000 buyers in 2006, down from 18,300 in 2001, and chairman of CML NI, Derek Wilson, insisted something needed to be done.
He said: “It is no surprise that with house price inflation reaching 23.4 per cent in 2006 we now have the lowest number of FTBs entering the market since 1980. The CML urges the NI Assembly to address affordability constraints by implementing some of the reforms proposed in Sir John Semple’s report on affordable housing.”
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Measures put forward by Wilson included increasing the supply of affordable housing as well as the possibility of implementing a shared ownership scheme similar to HomeBuy.
Wilson insisted lenders were doing everything possible to help FTBs but warned the Assembly they couldn’t solve all the Province’s affordability problems.
Speaking on the launch of Bank of Ireland’s NI quarterly house price index, Joe Frey, head of research for the NI Housing Executive, commented: “The new Minister responsible for housing, Margaret Ritchie, faces an increasingly challenging task. The latest price increases only reinforces the urgency of the need to address the affordability problems faced by FTBs throughout NI.”
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