UK Mortgage Lender Says House Prices Slowing Down

The annual house price growth rate has peaked at 10% and will now continue to grow at a considerably slower pace, Halifax said after reporting a modest 0.6% rise in prices for September.

The price of the average property rose to £187,188 last month, up just over £1,000 from August, said the country’s biggest mortgage lender.

House prices in the three months to September were 2.7% higher than in the preceding three months, but this was the second successive decline in the quarterly rate. Annually, prices were 9.6% higher in the three months to September than in the same three months last year; similar to last month (9.7%) and below July’s 10.2%, said the Halifax.

The latest findings from the country’s biggest mortgage lender show that annual house price inflation “may have peaked at 10%”, said its chief economist Martin Ellis. “The recent rapid rise in house prices in some parts of the UK, earnings growth that remains below consumer price inflation and the possibility of an interest rate rise over the coming months, appear to have tempered housing demand,” he said.

 
“A moderation in growth looks likely during the remainder of 2014 and into next year as supply and demand become increasingly better balanced.”

Halifax’s September figure demonstrates, not for the first time, the volatility of monthly house price assessments. While prices were up by 0.6% month-on-month in September, according to the lender, this followed no movement in August after an increase of 1.2% month-on-month in July and a dip of 0.4% in June.

via The Guardian

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