Archive for the 'House Prices' Category

Nationwide's figures for September showed that house prices rose by 1.3%, bringing the annual rate to 8.2%. It would appear that August's interest rate hike has not affected demand for property, with strong demand from landlords helping to support the market.

At the end of September, the average property price stood at £169,413.

Commenting on the figures Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said: “Just like the weather, the housing market was unseasonably warm in September as August’s interest rate hike did nothing to cool the rate of house price inflation.".

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has released information today showing that the annual rate of property price growth was 6% in July this year. This figure was up from the 5.3% for June.

This means that in July 2006, the average house price stood at £194,454.

The DCLG has replaced the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and is headed by Ruth Kelly.

House price inflation was higher than average in London, which had an annual increase figure of 7.1% in July.

The DCLG also stated that "The average price paid by first time buyers across the whole of the UK was £150,252 in June, while the average price paid by former owner occupiers was £213,309."

The Nationwide building society has today said that house prices grew by 0.8% in August. This brings the yearly rate of increase to 6.6%.

This update has been the first since the Bank of England raised rates from 4.5% to 4.75% earlier in August. Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said “The annual rate of house price inflation picked up for the third consecutive month in August. House prices are now 6.6% higher than at this time last year. This is the fastest annual rate of growth since April 2005 and almost three times faster than at this time last year."

Although a further base rate rise is expected before the end of the year, Nationwide does not expect this to have any significant effect on house prices. Fionnuala added, "Even though we expect rates to increase to 5% - 25 basis points above the peak of the last cycle - current economic conditions, especially in the labour market, are still supportive. This means that rate rises are likely to only be a catalyst to the slowing we had already expected, rather than fostering a repeat of the 2004 slowdown."

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has today announced that house prices in July rose at their fastest pace since 2004. It also stated that all regions were experiencing rises - the first time for 2 years.

Demand is strengthening and new instructions falling indicating continued rises in the near future, while the recent base rate rise is not expected to affect enthusiasm.

Stock levels of propery for sale are falling, as the government u-turn on HIPS has removed the rush to sell before the packs were due to come in to force.

RICS spokesman, Jeremy Leaf, said: "The increase in interest rates will do little to dampen the market as a strong economic outlook and improving employment prospects will hold up the confidence of households."

So if you are planning on moving up the property ladder soon, you may want to think about getting started before prices move too far higher.

Nationwide's figures for July show that house prices grew by 0.8%. This more significant rise follows three months of slow growth in the property market, and pushes the annual growth rate to 5.9%. This brings the average house price to £167,733.

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said “Indicators of market activity suggest that housing market demand remains fairly buoyant. This will help to support prices, at least in the short term. House purchase approvals picked up surprisingly strongly to 120,000 in June to equal the peak at the turn of the year. Indicators of demand early in the house purchase process have also been fairly positive. Estate agents’ stock to sales ratio is a good indicator of changes in the balance of supply and demand in the market and of the direction of house price movements a few months later. The stock to sales ratio has been climbing since the summer of last year. However, the ratio has been broadly stable for the last three months which may suggest some softening in price increases in the latter part of the year."