Hi °C | Lo °C House prices in Northern Ireland have plummeted by almost 12% during the year, according to a report.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that prices fell by 11.7% in Northern Ireland year on year, continuing a long-running trend of sharp decreases and taking average prices to £124,000.
Analysts have put the falls in Northern Ireland down to the market readjusting following a period of strong price increases before the economic crisis struck.
House prices have consistently fallen in Northern Ireland since February 2008, the ONS said.
Overall, UK house prices were 1.5% higher in October than a year earlier but almost half of the growth is due to London and the south east of England.
Earlier this week the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) predicted that average house prices here will keep falling, despite expectations that house figures in the rest of the UK will see an increase of 2%.
RICS predicts that prices will fall in Northern Ireland for the seventh year running, but by less than 10% over the year, compared to the third quarter of 2012, when prices fell by an annualised 12%.
In response to RICS' predictions, Desmond Turley of estate agents Ulster Property Sales said prices had now "hopefully" bottomed out.
"There's certainly more activity and confidence but it's hard to know.
"The transactions that are happening are in the lower end of the market.
"People who are buying are offering less than the asking price and getting properties agreed to them - but it's all down to bank lending.
"Many sales are repossessions, which is bringing prices down and eventually those sales should filter through and affect transactions further up the market."
