| UK house prices stable and going nowhere fast |
|
|
|
House prices remained stable in the month of November, according to the Nationwide building society. The house price inflation annual rate fell again to 2.4 per cent after seeing a pick up of up to 3.3 per cent in October. Nationwide had predicted in October itself that the rebound was a temporary phenomenon.
Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide group economist said: “As we expected, the strong rebound in prices in October was temporary, driven by buyers postponing purchases until after the August base rate cut.” She also added: “The overall picture remains one of stability rather than acceleration.”
Prices rose by three months to November by just 0.6 per cent as compared to the previous quarter. According to the Nationwide, the average house price in the UK now stands at £157,139 as against £153,439 a year ago when house price inflation was at around 15 per cent.
The Nationwide announced on Tuesday that the trends suggested that the property market would remain flat. Even if the market shows some changes, the price rises or drops will be registered only in small quantities.
House prices in the UK in November were almost the same as they were in May this year.
According the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which released a study last week, house prices registered an average growth of by 3.3 per cent that in the year to the month of September.
Some optimism was shown as Ms.Earley said: “Estate agents are reporting increasing buyer interest and that buyers and sellers are reaching agreement on price more readily.”
This trend is attributed to Bank of England’s management of interest rates which has managed to keep them on hold at 4.5 per cent.
The results of this study by Nationwide concur with other surveys done by Halifax and Hometrack, which also reported stability in prices.
Nationwide also said in its report that if house prices remained unchanged with BoE’s interest rates remaining constant at 4.5 per cent for quite some time to come, then affordability could reach its long-term average in a period four years. If there is an increase in house prices even by just 2 per cent per annum it would take around 8 years to achieve the same.
Posted
on : Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:25 GMT | General News
By : Rob Davis
|
| |
| Related |
|
|
|
