Belfast's rental crown is intact - with a sliver more of the pie

The city remains top of the rental market in Northern Ireland, with 41% of the country's rental transactions taking place here - up slightly on H1's 40%. (I did say it was a sliver of the pie!)

During H2 2017 there were 8,627 transactions in NI's private rental sector, a drop of 8.9% on the first half of the year. It's fallen 3.3% compared to the same period in 2016.

3,526 of those July - December lettings were in Belfast, which is a drop of 5.7% on the first six months of 2017. South Belfast is still the sub-section of the city with the largest volume of those lettings - 39% in fact. East Belfast isn't too far behind at 31%.

This isn't a surprise, given leases tend to be shorter and there is generally more rental property available in these areas. The population moves around a lot more in these areas too - fewer families and older people, more students, young workers and people on the move rather than settling down in these bustling areas.

North and West's lower figures are possibly due to a smaller private rental sector, with the social sector dominating here more, plus communities are generally more settled and close knit in these parts of the city.

Taking my usual look at the figures, although I note the Performance of The Private Rental Market in NI report no longer contains the info on average rent by property type or by number of bedrooms.

Perhaps it was felt that this degree of granularity was no longer needed in the figures? Regardless, they still paint a useful picture of the market.

This guide is particularly useful when used in conjunction with our Rental Yield Calculator Tool.

Data Source: University of Ulster Performance of the Private Rental Market in Northern Ireland summary research report