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Halifax Find Property Prices Bouncing Back
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The Halifax has found that property prices around the UK bounced back in January, after they reported a 1.9% quarterly increase.
This figure was found by comparing prices in the three months to February with the previous quarter.
Halifax revealed that house prices in January rose by 2% compared with December. This was the highest January increase in six years.1
When compared in annual terms, property price growth increased to 8.5%, up from December’s 7.8% figure.1
Halifax Find Property Prices Bouncing Back
The Halifax’s Chief Housing Economist, Martin Ellis, says: “This bounce back in house price growth in January coincides with reports of the first rise in mortgage approvals for six months in December.”
Recently, the Bank of England (BoE) revealed that mortgage approvals increased slightly between November and December. However, some experts do not find this data promising.
Chief UK and European Economist at IHS Global Insight, Howard Archer, says: “The 2% jump in house prices reported by the Halifax is hard to explain, and looks markedly at odds with other latest data and survey evidence.”1
The Halifax believes there is good reason for the unforeseen rise in house prices. It highlighted further drops in mortgage rates and the Stamp Duty changes that came into force in December.
The reform means that most people will pay less of the tax when they buy a property than they used to.
Halifax’s Martin Ellis also says that with wages now rising faster than inflation, prices will be boosted, although he mentions that property prices at this time of year can be very unpredictable.
He says: “The monthly figures in January can be particularly volatile due to the lower volumes of activity at this time of year, and there have been unusually large rises on occasion in the past, such as in 2007 [2.3%] and 2009 [2.4%].”1
Halifax found the average UK house price to be £193,130.1
The Nationwide Building Society found that prices in January increased by only 0.3% compared to December.1
