Key Points

In January - March 2026, there were 1,700 Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) new social housing dwelling starts and 676 SHDP new social housing dwelling completions.
The total number of applicants on the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) waiting list (with no existing NIHE/housing association tenancy) at 31 March 2026 was 50,381. Of these applicants, 39,008 households were in ‘housing stress’ and 33,412 had FDA (full duty applicant) status.
The number of households accepted as full duty applicants in the quarter ending 31 March 2026 was 2,627. The total number of households accepted as full duty applicants in 2025-26 was 10,852, a similar figure to 2024-25 (10,855).
During the quarter ending December 2025, 364 new National Housing Building Council (NHBC) registered dwellings were sold with an average price of £273,200.
In January - March 2026, the Affordable Warmth Scheme made improvements to 481 homes, while provisional spend for 2025-26 is just under £10m.

Introduction

The Northern Ireland Housing Bulletin is produced each quarter by the Analytics Division (AD) of the Department for Communities. The Bulletin contains information on Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) housing starts and completions, social housing demand, homelessness, NHBC registered new dwelling sales and prices, and the Affordable Warmth Scheme.

AD receives data for the Housing Bulletin from a number of data providers. AD carries out a number of validation checks to quality assure all data received, however, responsibility for accuracy of the data supplied lies primarily with the source.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled National Statistics (or ‘accredited official statistics’). Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Please see: Accredited official statistics - Office for Statistics Regulation (statisticsauthority.gov.uk)

Lead Statistician: Kerry Millin

Housing Team: Lesley Curry, Katie McFadden

Section One: Supply

Supporting information can be found in the accompanying tables and appendix.

This publication reports on Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) Starts and Completions.

The number of Building Control dwelling starts and completions, by private owners and housing associations, can be viewed on the Department of Finance’s website.

Building Control Starts and Completions and Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) Starts and Completions figures often differ from each other, but this is not due to error. The same social housing units are recorded by both data providers, the difference lies in the recording criteria. See appendix for further information.

Section Two: Social Renting Demand

This section provides information relating to the social rented sector (Northern Ireland Housing Executive & housing associations). Detailed data on Social housing waiting lists, allocations and homelessness can be found in the accompanying tables and appendix.

Waiting lists, housing stress & allocations January - March 2026

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) holds data on all housing applications and allocations made through the social housing selection scheme in the Housing Management System.
The total number of applicants on the waiting list (with no existing NIHE/housing association tenancy) at 31 March 2026 was 50,381.
Of these applicants, 39,008 households were in ‘housing stress’. This means they have 30 or more points under the social housing selection scheme.
Furthermore, of the applicants on the waiting list, 33,412 households had full duty applicant status. A full duty applicant is an applicant considered by the Housing Executive to be eligible, homeless (or threatened with homelessness), in priority need and unintentionally homeless, to whom the Housing Executive owes full housing duty.

The local government districts with the highest number of applicants were Belfast (14,196) and Derry City and Strabane (6,556).

Social rented sector waiting lists by LGD January - March 2026

Map based on Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) data and developed by Analytics Division, DfC. Copyright: Crown Copyright and database rights MOU209.

The number of properties allocated by the NIHE and housing associations between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 to applicants on the waiting list who were not already social sector tenants was 5,943. This equated to 70.3% of total allocations made in this 12-month period.
The remaining properties (2,507, 29.7%) allocated by the NIHE and housing associations were to tenants who had applied for a transfer from an existing tenancy.

Homelessness

Supporting information can be found in the accompanying tables and appendix.

In total, 4,224 households presented as homeless to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive during January - March 2026. This is an increase of 183 (4.5%) on the same quarter in 2025 (4,041).
The household types with the highest proportion of homeless presenters during January - March 2026 were single males (34.8%) and families (26.2%). The age group with the highest number of presenters for both single males and single females was the 26 to 59 age group with 1,193 and 508 presenters respectively.
A full duty applicant is an applicant considered by the Housing Executive to be eligible, homeless (or threatened with homelessness), in priority need and unintentionally homeless, to whom the Housing Executive owes full housing duty.
The number of households accepted as full duty applicants for the quarter January - March 2026 was 2,627, a decrease of 88 (3.2%) on the same quarter in 2025 (2,715).The total number of households accepted as full duty applicants in 2025-26 was 10,852, a similar figure to 2024-25 (10,855).
The most common reason for presenting as homeless reported by full duty applicants was accommodation not reasonable (782).
Of those households accepted as full duty applicants during the quarter, 148 were discharged.

Most common reasons for being accepted as homeless

Accommodation not reasonable breakdown

Section Three: Owner Occupied Housing Demand

Supporting information can be found in the accompanying tables and appendix

Information on all all verified residential property sales and average property prices, as recorded by His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC), can be found in The Northern Ireland House Price Index , produced by Land & Property Services (LPS). The LPS report is updated quarterly and contains information on the average property price and number of sales as well as index value. It also provides a measure of change of a standardised residential property sold in Northern Ireland.

New Dwelling Sales and Prices

The new dwelling sales and prices information in this section is presented by the 11 Local Government Districts (LGDs). Whilst provisional figures are provided for the latest quarter, the text will report on revised figures for October - December 2025.

During the quarter ending 31 December 2025, 364 (revised figure) new National Housing Building Council (NHBC) registered dwellings were sold, an increase of 8.9% from the previous quarter (334) and an increase of 23.4% from the same quarter in 2024 (295).
The average price stood at £273,200 for October - December 2025 (revised figure), which is a decrease of 3.7% on the previous quarter (£283,800), and a small increase of 0.1% on the same quarter in 2024 (£273,000).

Average Price of New Dwellings Sold: Quarter January - March 2018 to January - March 2026

The largest number of new dwelling sales during the quarter ending December 2025 was in the Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD (75), with an average price of £321,200.

New Dwelling Average Prices October - December 2025

New Dwelling Number of Sales October - December 2025

Maps produced by Analytics Division (DfC) using National House Building Council Prices and Sales data and OSNI mapping. This is based upon Crown Copyright Intellectual Property and is reproduced with the permission of Land and Property Services under delegated authority from the Keeper of Records of Public Records. Copyright: Crown Copyright and database rights MOU577.1

Section Four: Affordable Warmth Scheme

The Affordable Warmth Scheme is designed to help those on lower incomes, and who are living in private accommodation, with the costs of energy efficiency measures. More information on this can be found in the accompanying tables and appendix.

In January - March 2026, a total of 481 homes were improved, bringing the total to 1,839 homes improved in 2025-26.
Provisional spend for the financial year 2025-26 is just under £10 million.

Notes

1. Symbols and Conventions

The following symbols are used in the tables accompanying this publication:

..: Not available

-: Not Applicable

(P): Provisional

(R): Revised

*: Statistical disclosure applied

2. Revisions Policy

Homelessness statistics contained within the publication and supplementary tables are subject to revision in future releases. This is to account for retrospective actions on the Housing Management System (HMS). These revisions are performed in accordance with T3.9 of the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

3. Changes from previous releases

In May 2024, information regarding the Affordable Warmth Scheme (AWS) was added.

In February 2024, a table was added to show estimated stock of dwellings by tenure and local government district.

In the August 2025 publication, as a result of the removal of Rule 23 points (intimidation points), there are no acceptances for intimidation. The two new reasons of “Hate Crime” and “Violence/Risk of Violence” have been introduced in Tables 2.4 and 2.6 in place of “Intimidation”.

In bulletins up to October - December 2025, Affordable Warmth Scheme (AWS) measures installed and homes improved were reported using the date on which completion documentation was received. From the January - March 2026 bulletin, measures installed and homes improved are based on the date a payment is issued for the completed measure. As a result of this methodology change, figures relating to the value of approvals issued, the number of homes improved, and the number of measures installed in the above table have been revised. While the overall level of scheme activity has not changed, the figures assigned to each quarter may differ from previous bulletins as the information is recorded at a different point in time.

4. User Engagement

Quarterly Housing Bulletin:

User feedback is welcome so we would like to encourage your participation in our user engagement survey, and thank you in advance: User engagement survey.

5. Accredited Official Statistics

Accredited Official Statistics are official statistics that have been independently reviewed by Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and confirmed to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Producers of accredited official statistics are legally required to ensure they maintain compliance with the Code. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed in 2012 as part of the assessment of Statistics on Housing and Benefits in Northern Ireland, with accreditation confirmed in June 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice and should be labelled National Statistics (or ‘accredited official statistics’). In February 2019, a compliance check confirmed that the designation (or accredited official statistics labelling) should continue.

Our statistical practice is regulated by OSR. They set the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Since the latest review by OSR, the following improvements have been made in order to continue to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics:

Release - accessibility enhanced by including hyperlinks to the data tables and appendix within the release. This allows users to access them directly.
Homelessness - value and insight added by providing additional breakdowns of homelessness within the data tables and the release.
Appendix - clarity increased by labelling each section in the appendix e.g. “SECTION 1 - SUPPLY”. This gives a clearer link to users between each chapter, the associated data tables and the appendix.

It is the Department for Communities’ responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. National Statistics accreditation can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

Northern Ireland Housing Bulletin