Find property to buy, property to rent and find estate agents in the UK with estateagents.co.uk
Property Guides
Buying property
Selling property
Estate agent fees
Free property guides
Conveyancing services
Mortgage services
See all Property Guides
Find Property in the UK
England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
Free conveyancing costs quote comparison
My estateagents
Saved properties
Saved searches
What I last viewed
Email updates
House Prices Rise For Second Month In A Row

Wed, 01 Jul 2009
House prices rose by a steady 0.9 per cent in June, according to latest figures from Nationwide building society .

The rise is slightly less than in May when prices rose by 1.3 per cent, but the three month rate of change is positive for the first time since December 2007.

The latest price rise has taken the annual rate of decline to 9.3 per cent - the first time since July 2008 that the annual drop has been in single digits - and means the average asking price of a UK property stood at £156,442 in June, compared to £154,016 the previous month.

Commenting on the figures, Nationwide’s chief economist Martin Gahbauer said: " House prices have now risen in three of the last four months, suggesting that the improvement that began to show up in March represents more than just statistical noise."

"If the pattern of price movements seen in the first half of the year is repeated over the second half, then prices could show only a small single digit fall for 2009 as a whole."

"This would represent a stark shift from trends seen at the turn of the year, when most indicators were pointing to a repeat of the large declines seen in 2008."

According to Mr Gahbauer, one of the reasons why house prices have stabilised in recent months is because of "relentless drop" in the number of properties being put up for sale.

But he warned that these "abnormally low supply levels are unlikely to last forever" and added "there are still many obstacles in the way of a genuine and sustainable price recovery".

"On balance, the stabilisation of house prices is a welcome surprise that did not seem likely at the beginning of the year," he explained.

"However, there are still considerable headwinds facing the demand side and until we see a more robust recovery in house purchase activity, it is too early to be confident about a full-scale recovery of prices ."
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.
newsnews rss