Region’s home prices rise as London market stalls

HOUSE PRICES in Yorkshire and the Humber have recorded the biggest rise nationally despite a dip in the property market in London and the South East, according to the latest figures published today.

The online estate agent Rightmove has said that the spring house price momentum nationally has stalled in June as the average price tag on a property coming to market dipped by more than £1,000 month-on-month.

Across England and Wales, the average asking price was £316,109 in June, marking a 0.4 per cent or £1,172 fall compared with May, amid signs that it is becoming more of a “buyers’ market” in some areas, the property website said.

It was the first fall seen in the month of June since 2009 – at the height of the credit crunch, and it is also the first monthly decline in asking prices Rightmove has seen this year so far.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: “It now seems certain that we will have continuing political uncertainty, which the housing market traditionally dislikes, and with the first fall in June prices for eight years there is no doubt that the lack of stability is a factor.”

The annual rate of asking prices also slowed in June, to 1.8 per cent – the lowest rate since April 2013.

Asking price growth in June was dragged down by London and the South East, with their large housing markets exerting a strong influence over the national figures.

Rightmove said growth would have been in positive territory had it not been for these two “slower-performing” regions. Asking prices were down monthon-month by 2.4 per cent in London and by 0.9 per cent in the South East.

By contrast, asking prices were up month-on-month in June by 1.7 per cent in Yorkshire and the Humber, by 1.3 per cent in the North West and the East Midlands, by 1.2 per cent in the South West, by 0.7 per cent in the North East and by 0.8 per cent in Wales.

In the West Midlands, asking prices dipped by 0.8 per cent month-on-month – the only other region apart from London and the South -East to see asking prices fall in June.