You are here: Home - News -

House price growth continues to slow – Nationwide

by: Adam Williams
  • 27/03/2015
  • 0
House price growth continues to slow – Nationwide
Property prices in the UK have continued to rise, but at a much slower pace than previously at 0.1%.

The house price index from Nationwide found the average property was worth 5.1% more in March than a year ago.

However, this annual rise compares to 5.7% in the year to February while last summer saw rises of over 10%.

This was the seventh successive month that property price growth slowed and leaves the average house price at £189,454.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said many areas of the country had seen prices slow significantly since last summer.

“While house price growth has moderated across the UK, there is still significant regional variation,” he said. “Prices in London and the South of England continued to see the strongest rates of annual growth, though there was a noticeable softening this quarter, particularly in London.

“Price growth also continued to cool in the North West of England, Scotland and Wales, even though prices in these regions remain some way below their 2007 peak. Indeed, in annual terms, prices in Wales declined by 0.5% in Q1.”

Gardner said a potential issue was the lack of supply, with few suitable new houses coming onto the market.

“Despite relatively strong rates of house price growth in recent years, there has only been a modest pickup in house building after the sharp fall seen in the wake of the financial crisis,” he added.

“Hopefully, construction activity will strengthen further in the period ahead. The major house builders appear to have capacity to expand supply, with most reporting land banks, which, at current rates of building activity, could support construction for more than five years.”

There are 0 Comment(s)

You may also be interested in