Northern Ireland, once a battle-scarred backwater, is being transformed into a desirable destination and investment hotspot almost overnight. Research from Halifax shows that the Province is now the most expensive part of the UK outside London and the South East.

The average house in Ulster now costs £228,790, an increase of 46.7 per cent in one year. Only London, at £313,122, and the South East region of England, at £259,904, have higher average house prices. The national average is £196,525.

The revolution in Northern Ireland’s fortunes has been dramatically swift. Despite double-figure increases in house prices every year since 2003, in early 2005 Northern Ireland was still the cheapest part of the UK, except for Scotland.

On March 26, Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley set a course for change when they met, cracked jokes and agreed to work together to set up a power-sharing administration. Since then, in the second quarter of 2007 alone, prices in the Province have risen by 8.5 per cent – almost twice the London increase in the same period. Many regions, including the South West, Wales and the Midlands, experienced falls of up to 2.8 per cent in their average house price.

Historically, the change is even more stark. A decade ago, the average house in Northern Ireland cost a mere £31,255, well below the UK average of £46,315.