Average house prices still rising

housing: Experts predict slowdown

The average home across Britain has added just over £3,000 to its value since the start of the year, according to analysis by Zoopla.

The online estate agent found the typical home was valued at £304,469 in July – an increase of £3,039 since the start of 2017.

However, Richard Snook, a senior economist at PwC, said it expects the market to soften.

Mr Snook said: “We expect London to be one of the UK’s worst-performing regions, achieving price growth of just 2.8% in 2017.

“The key drivers of this slowdown are uncertainty related to Brexit and a softening in the economic outlook.”

The total value of the British property market has grown by £88 billion since the start of the year to reach nearly £8.1 trillion.

While the general direction of property prices is still up, the latest figures show a slowdown compared with a year ago.

During the same period last year, the total value of all stock increased by £410bn, Zoopla said.

Belper in Derbyshire, Hove in East Sussex and Todmorden in Yorkshire were identified as property hot spots for rising prices in 2017 so far, while Richmond, also in Yorkshire, and Leatherhead in Surrey were identified as cold spots, with the biggest percentage falls in values since the start of the year.

When it comes to location, London, Edinburgh and Bristol are the most popular location searches so far in 2017.

The latest UK house price index shows the average price of a house in Scotland stood at £143,106 in May.

Price increases were recorded in 27 out of 32 local authorities in May 2017 compared to the previous year.

The biggest rise was in Perth and Kinross where the average price rose by 7.6% to £182,254. The biggest decrease was in Aberdeen, where prices fell by 7.8% to £164,277.

Registers of Scotland business development and information director Kenny Crawford said: “Average prices in May continued their upward trend when compared with May 2016.

“There have been increases in every month since March 2016 when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Sales volumes figures for March 2017 showed a decrease in Scotland of 17% when compared with March 2016 – however, volumes in March 2016 were higher than usual due to changes in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax that came into effect on April 1 2016.

“When compared with previous years, sales volumes figures for March 2017 are up by 20.7% when compared with March 2015, up by 31.8% when compared with March 2014 and up by 44% when compared with March 2013.”

Zoopla’s keyword search data also reveals that house hunters are looking for properties with plenty of parking and external space as the top searches so far in 2017 are garage, parking and detached.

New figures show that the housing market is still quite vibrant, although the rate of price increase has slowed year-on-year.