According to the latest Nationwide Building Society, House Price Index, the average UK property price currently sits at £211,671 – a new record for the Nationwide index. UK property prices rose by 0.3 per cent in July compared to June, and were 2.9 per cent higher than they were in the corresponding month previous year.
“The annual pace of house price growth remained broadly stable in July at 2.9 per cent, only a touch lower than the 3.1 per cent recorded in June,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist. “On the surface, this appears at odds with recent signs of cooling in the housing market. The number of housing transactions dipped to their lowest level for eight months in June, while in the same month, the number of mortgages approved for house purchase moderated to a nine-month low of 65,000.” This slowdown in buyer activity is likely to continue, while maintaining slight property price growth for the time being, yet Gardner believes wider economic performance is likely to have more bearing on future property market performance.
“While employment growth has remained relatively robust, household budgets are coming under pressure as wage growth is failing to keep up with the rising cost of living,” he explained. “This suggests that housing market activity is likely to remain subdued, with the balance in the market shifting a little further towards buyers in the quarters ahead.”
Property prices in the UK are expected to rise by around 2 per cent over 2017 as a whole. This is lower than the 3-6 per cent price growth range which has been prevalent for much of the past two years.
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Courtesy: David Fuller