Archive for the 'House Prices' Category

Nationwide’s figures for January 2010 show that house prices rose by 1.2% in month, and bring the year on year rate of increase to 8.6%. This brings the cost of the average UK home to £163,481. Following 9 consecutive months of property price increases, then unless there is a sudden change in February, annual rate of price increase will move to double figures for the first time since May ‘07.

News that the UK economy finally emerged from recession in the fourth quarter of 2009 has strengthened confidence in the property market, even though the emergence was very weak (i.e. 0.1%!).

Unfortunately though, house price increases are not being matched by average earnings increases, with many workers facing pay freezes or even cuts. This could ultimately at least slow the house price recovery or even bring it to a halt, if demand for houses drops.

Figures released from the Land Registry show that property prices fell by 2% in February. This means the annual rate of decline increases from 15.1% to 16.5%. The average house is now worth just under £154,000, more than £30,000 less than a year ago. Decline in house prices in the North West was significantly higher than average, with house prices dropping by 4.1% in February. However, in the South West, prices dropped by only 1%. Figures for London show that property prices dropped slightly less than the average over the last year, falling by 15.6% to £298,563. Sales have also dropped significantly over the last year. There were 81,300 completions in December 2007, but only 36,341 in December 2008.

The Halifax has released data showing that house prices rose, on average, by 1% in March. Overall prices have risen by 2.8% in quarter one of 2007. March’s figure brings the annual rate of house price growth to 11.1%.

(more…)

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has released results of its January house price survey. They show that house prices rose 2.1% in January, bringing the average house price to £205,286.

The annual rate of house price growth was 10.9%, up from 9.9% in December 06. London had a slightly higher rate of growth, up from 11.8% in December to 13.2% in January. London was overshadowed by Northern Ireland however which has an annual house price inflation rate of 42.5%. Experts have suggested that this high growth is due to a peace dividend.

Halifax’s house price survey results for February have shown that prices rose by 1.8% on average. This keeps the annual rate at 9.9%, and brings the ’standardised average house price’ to £192,233.

On a quarterly basis though, the rate of growth has dropped considerably. In the past three months, prices rose by 2.3%, compared to 4.7% in the previous three months.

Demand is dropping relative to the peaks seen in the autumn of 2006, but low supply is “continuing to exert upward pressure on house prices, particularly in London”.

Halifax also note that property tax as a percentage of total tax has risen from 10.4% in 1995 to 12.0% in 2004. This compares with a 5.3% average in the Euro-zone. What do readers think of this? Is it time for a change in Government? Add a comment to air your views.