UK House Prices stand firm
The Nationwide has released new figures this week that indicate UK house prices are remaining ‘surprisingly resilient’ over the last few months with values actually rising again in November. The data shows that the price of the average home in the UK rose by 0.4% to £165,798.
Further encouraging news shows that the number of mortgages approved for house purchase, although yet to complete, has risen slightly to the highest level in almost two years with the Bank of England indicating there were 52,743 approvals in October. The fact that approvals last month were higher than the average for the previous six months suggests that sales may pick up slightly in the coming months.
The Nationwide are predicting that prices will remain the same or even fall in the next 12 months.
"House prices have remained surprisingly resilient in recent months, despite the deterioration in the economic outlook," said Robert Gardner, the Nationwide's chief economist.
"But, with the UK economic recovery expected to remain sluggish well into 2012, house price growth is likely to remain soft, with prices moving sideways or drifting modestly lower over the next twelve months."
Usually the accepted way to measure trends in house prices is to compare the average price of the past 3 months with that of the previous three months and with the Nationwide data this indicates a rise of 0.2%.
Mr Gardner said the apparent resilience of house prices reflected a lack of supply in the market but also welcomed the latest announcement from the government on encouraging first-time buyer activity, although any action should also include measures to increase housing supply.
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