Mortgage News
Halifax shows house price rise over 50 years
Halifax has revealed that the average UK house price has increased over the last 50 years from £2507 in 1959 to £162,085 in 2009 – a rise of 273% after allowing for the effects of inflation.
In its latest housing market analysis, the lender said that prices experienced their biggest rise during the 2000s, increasing by 62%. The worst performing decade was the 1990s when prices fell by 22%.
There has been a steady rise in owner-occupation rates since 1959, increasing by 25% to 68% in 2008 following the introduction of the Right to Buy scheme. Due to this increase, the proportion of homes which were privately rented fell from 33% in 1961 to 14% in 2008.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said prices had increased because people in the UK had become wealthier and wanted to buy property.
He said: “Over the last fifty years, demand has gone up but levels of housebuilding have fallen sharply which has led to further upward pressure on prices.”
Fahim Antoniades, group director at Mortgage Centre IFA, agreed, adding that the dream of homeownership had pushed demand up to a high level.
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