Big cash bonus to purchase a home

Northern Ireland developers are paying stamp duty and mortgage costs for buyers in a bid to kick start the flagging property market, the Telegraph can reveal today.

With house prices at an all-time high - despite a recent drop of 8% - and investors and first-time buyers priced out, builders are prepared to dig deep to sell new homes.

The number of first-time buyers has fallen by 17.5% in one year. The most recent figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders have shown there were 9,700 first-time buyers in 2005, but this number fell to 8,000 in 2006.