Northern Ireland Housing Bulletin October - December 2024
Analytics Division
2024-11-21
October - December 2024
A National
Statistics publication
Published by:
Analytics Division, Department for Communities
Frequency: Quarterly
Publication Date: 27 February 2024
Key Points
During the quarter ending 31 December 2024:
There were 140 Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) new social housing dwelling starts and 429 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 December 2024 was 48,325. Of these applicants, 36,891 households were in ‘housing stress’ and 30,982 had FDA (full duty applicant) status.
In total, 3,580 households presented as homeless to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE). The household types with the highest proportion of homeless presenters were single males (35.8%) and families (26.4%).
The number of households accepted as full duty applicants was 2,192. The most common reason for presenting as homeless reported by full duty applicants was accommodation not reasonable (679).
During the quarter ending September 2024, 273 new National Housing Building Council (NHBC) registered dwellings were sold with an average price of £267,800.
In October - December 2024, the Affordable Warmth Scheme made improvements to 319 homes, while provisional year-to-date expenditure for 2024-25 was just under £5 million.
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: Katie McFadden
Housing Team: Lesley Curry
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 dwellings 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 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 July - September 2024.
During the quarter ending September 2024, 273 (revised figure) new National Housing Building Council (NHBC) registered dwellings were sold, a decrease of 2.5% from the previous quarter (280) and a decrease of 1.4% from the same quarter in 2023 (277).
The average price stood at £267,800 for July - September 2024 (revised figure), which is an increase of 6.3% on the previous quarter (£252,000), and an increase of 7.9% on the same quarter in 2023 (£248,300).
Average Price of New Dwellings Sold - Quarter January - March 2018 to October - December 2024
The largest number of new dwelling sales during the quarter ending September 2024 was in the Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD (65), with an average price of £332,700.
New Dwelling Average Prices July - September 2024
New Dwelling Number of Sales July - September 2024
Map 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 was introduced in September 2014 to replace the Warm Homes Scheme. The 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 October - December 2024, a total of 319 homes were improved.
Provisional spend to date for the financial year 2024-25, is just under £5 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 August 2024, new information was added onto Tables 2.1 and 2.2 to reflect the number of applicants that have full duty applicant (FDA) status.
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.
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.
Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) Starts and Completions
There were 140 SHDP social housing dwelling starts in October - December 2024; all were self-contained.
The largest proportion of starts were new build (99.3%). The remaining start was Existing Satisfactory Purchase (0.7%). There were no Off-the-Shelf, Rehabilitation, Reimprovement and Social Housing via Planning Gain starts.
There were a total of 429 SHDP social housing dwelling completions in October - December 2024; all were self-contained.
The largest proportion of SHDP new social housing dwelling completions in this quarter were New Build (84.4%). A further 12.8% were Off-the-Shelf, 2.6% were Rehabilitation, and 0.2% were Existing Satisfactory Purchase. There were no Reimprovement or Social Housing via Planning Gain completions.