LONDON - The latest report from Halifax, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender says that house prices did not show any movement in October although the activity in the housing market increased in the month.
“The overall pattern of price movements over the past few months shows that the market has strengthened compared with earlier in the year, but the static level of prices in October suggests that we are not poised for another sustained period of sharply rising property values,” observed Martin Ellis, the chief economist at Halifax.
On a year-on-year basis, the house prices increased 3.9 percent as against the 3 percent rise in September, but were well short of the 18.5 percent rise recorded at the same point last year. The survey found that the average price of a home across the country was £168,210. House prices for the three months ending October were up by 2.9 percent as compared to the previous quarter, the lender said.
The housing market has lately seen an influx of buyers and sellers thanks to the August rate cut instituted by the Bank of England. Analysts say that the subsequent months have seen the impact of the cuts on the housing market in a positive way. "It appears that recently strengthening housing market activity -- which has been supported by August’s interest rate cut -- could be starting to feed through to revive house prices," said Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight. However, there did not appear to be any possibility of another rate cut this year. Analysts say that the next quarter point shaving could come in February next year.
The Halifax housing survey comes in the wake of a similar one by Nationwide Building Society, which said that house prices rose by 1.3 percent in October.
Posted
on : Fri, 04 Nov 2005 16:15 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Salim Patel
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