| Nationwide expects house price growth to remain flat |
|
|
Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, said on Thursday that it expected house price growth to be flat over the next one year. Philip Williamson, chief executive of Nationwide said: “This year we have had zero house price inflation and I expect that to continue for the next 12 months.”
The prediction comes as Nationwide’s pre-tax profits rose to £255 million for the six months ending 30 September up from £224 million last year. But, its share of the net mortgage market fell to 8.3 percent over the same period. Williamson, however, expects this share to rise to around 9 per cent by year end and remain there for around a year. He added: “We have adopted a purposively cautious approach to mortgage lending... but we expect our profitability to continue to do well.”
Recent reports have also shown signs of some recovery in the UK housing market. Figures declared in August by the Land Registry and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister showed that house prices were declining at a much reduced pace. Mortgage rate lending also picked up following a cut in interest rates to 4.5 per cent in August.
Nationwide also reported only this month that house prices had increased by 1.3 per cent in October. The average house price is now £157,107. Nationwide was cautious as it feels that it is “far too early to say that prices will continue to accelerate from here”.
Currently, house prices are 3.3 per cent higher compared to the same period a year ago. Though, it continues to grow, the pace of this growth has reduced by four fifths in the last one year.
Other analysts concur with Nationwide's assessment. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at the Global Insight consultancy, said: “We remain sceptical that house prices are set to see sustained sharp rises any time soon.”
Posted
on : Fri, 18 Nov 2005 06:45 GMT | General News
By : Rob Davis
|
| |
| Related |
|
|
|
