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

Assetz® Property News Service

House prices edge up in August

8th September 2010 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

Activity in the property market remained relatively subdued as house prices increased by a mere 0.2% in August, according to figures.

House prices are now at a similar level to the end of 2009, with last month's price rise coupled with a 0.7% increase in July cancelling out most of the falls of the previous three months, Halifax said.

House price inflation had been allowed to cool because market activity had been "largely static" since the turn of the year, after a shortage of supply caused prices to rise during 2009. The group said it expects house prices to finish the year at a similar level to where they began.

The Halifax's figures conflict with those released by Nationwide, which showed prices had declined by 0.9% in August, after a fall of 0.5% in July.

Data from the Bank of England also showed that only 48,722 mortgages were approved for house purchase during July, a level that economists consider to be consistent with house price falls.

Halifax said annual house price inflation had fallen slightly to 4.6% during the three months to the end of August, compared with the same period a year earlier - the third consecutive month during which it has declined.

The average home now costs £167,953, 9% above the low reached in April last year, but still 16% below the August 2007 peak.

Assetz chief executive Stuart Law said: "The latest Halifax data shows that monthly house price growth continues to slow to a more sustainable level, with the figures still reverberating from the election fall-out and the government's austerity measures.

"While some commentators continue to speculate about a so-called 'double dip' in the market, this latest rise shows no sign of this. Our definition of a double dip would be if property prices returned to the trough witnessed in March 2009.

"Negative monthly growth and 'wobbles' in the market are inevitable as property prices rectify themselves, but a 'double-dip' is extremely unlikely given that new build development has essentially ground to a halt, something which will underpin property prices for the foreseeable future. We still expect to see a modest 5% overall growth for 2010."

Copyright © Press Association 2010

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