Assetz® News » HOME | RSS Feed FEED | LIST ALL ARTICLES | ASSETZ HOMEPAGE
Investment Property News from Assetz

Assetz® Property News Service

UK property prices keep on rising

26th June 2006 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

New figures have corroborated recent statistics suggesting that the UK's property market is continuing to show signs of strong growth.

While a number of experts had been predicting a potential downturn in the market due to the spectre of a rise in interest rates, a number of recent surveys have been of the opinion that the market is in fact in buoyant mood. Hometrack's latest survey has backed up this view with its latest report, which shows that house prices have again risen in June, regardless of fears over a potential increase in interest rates.

Rumours had been abound in early June that the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) might be considering upping interest rates to keep a lid on inflation – something which property investors would be loathe to see given the strong start to the year made by the housing sector. However, with the release of the minutes of the MPC's last meeting released last week, fears over a potential rise appear to have receded somewhat, as all but one of the members voted in favour of holding the base rate at 4.5 per cent.

Hometrack's figures, however, appear to indicate that the property market has in fact been paying little attention to the speculation on an interest rate rise, with properties continuing to increase in value.

The research revealed that property in London again led the field, as price inflation across the country increased by 2.9 per cent during the first six months of the year, including an impressive 0.6 per cent during June. But London did particularly well and may have helped to mask some instances of deflation in some areas.

"Looking back over the first six months of the year there is a stark difference in performance between London and the rest of the country," explains the property research firm's director of research, Richard Donnell.

Mr Donnell continued: "The differentials in growth reflect the fact that the London housing market significantly under-performed the rest of the market between 2001 and mid-2005."

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight, suggested that the figures represented good news for the property industry, stating that the recent housing market revival "remains intact".

Mr Archer continued: "Indeed, given the current strength of housing market activity, house prices seem set to firm further in the near term at least."

Assetz® is a UK and International Property Investment Specialist. Please visit our property sites shown below.

Assetz for Investors UK Assetz Hotels Assetz Homes Assetz International Assetz France Assetz Spain Assetz Cyprus Assetz Germany Assetz Portugal Assetz Ski Assetz Cape Verde Assetz USA Assetz Finance Assetz Fund Management

Accessing the news service

You can view all of the Assetz® UK, International and UK Property Investment Articles and News here.

We also provide an RSS Feed Feed of the news service, or you can view all articles. Click here to view more information on RSS readers and how they make reading online news more convenient.

eXTReMe Tracker