Mortgage News
Nationwide: UK house prices ‘treading water’
House prices continued to “tread water” in September with prices rising by 0.1% during the month, said Nationwide.
Its house price index showed that prices were essentially flat over the year, just 0.3% lower than September 2010.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “Sluggish demand for homes on the back of weak labour market conditions, combined with only a gradual rise in the supply of available properties has helped top keep property prices fairly stable since the summer of 2010.
“We expect this trend to be maintained over the remainder of 2011, although downside risks have increased as UK and global growth prospects have weakened.”
Nationwide also released its quarterly figures for June to September, when the typical UK house price was £166,597. This represents a 0.5% drop on the same time last year and a slight fall of 0.1% on the previous quarter.
The “outer metropolitan” region saw the strongest quarterly growth, with a 1.6% rise, making average house prices £249,630. This region covers areas in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent and Surrey.
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London homes saw a 1.9% fall on the previous quarter to £295,024, but annual growth of 0.5%.
Wales recorded its third consecutive quarter of price rises with a quarterly 0.2% increase in Q3, pushing the average house price up to £138,849.
Prices in Scotland fell by 0.5% over the three months, averaging £137,846 and down 1.1% on the year. Northern Ireland also had a weaker performance, with a 4.1% quarterly fall leading to prices averaging £118,723, down 9.3% on the year.
In the best performing regional towns/cities category, Bradford came out on top with a 9% annual increase, to make the average house price £159,956.
Belfast was the worst performing, with a 12% drop over the year to make the typical home worth £171,208.