HOUSE PRICES SOAR BY £1,000 A MONTH
BRITAIN’S housing market continues to boom after the Brexit vote.
Prices of the average home rose by £1,000 a month in the past year, it was revealed yesterday. Newly released figures showed a healthy surge in property values which rocketed by some 5.2 per cent.
The upward trend means the average house price cost around £227,000 in December 2017, some £12,000 higher than in December 2016.
The surge in prices, which will be welcomed by homeowners, was revealed in an index released jointly by the
Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Land Registry and other market bodies.
Experts said the good news flew in the face of those who had predicted the housing market would crash if the public voted to leave the EU.
A spokesman for the online housing experts Property Forum said: “Despite doomsday predictions for the UK economy and the UK housing market immediately after the Brexit referendum, we have seen no real reduction in the UK economy or UK house prices.
“If we look outside of London, house prices are still expected to show an increase in 2018 although this will be a little subdued compared to recent times.
“According to government figures UK employment is improving, the economy is standing its own ground and the UK authorities are deep in negotiations with international partners regarding trade deals after Brexit.”
Easier
The spokesman added: “The reality is that the UK electorate has yet to feel any financial pinch as a consequence of Brexit.”
Jeremy Duncombe, director at Legal & General, said the new ONS figures showed house prices were now rising at “healthier levels than in previous years” and were more aligned with wage inflation.
“Couple this with competitive mortgage rates and first-time buyers should find it that little bit easier to get onto the property ladder,” he said.
But while the upward trend shows no immediate sign of abating, market experts still urged caution as they warned that the reasons for the climbs might be misleading. Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and a former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), said the December increase “reflects more the shortage of available property to buy at that time rather than market strength”.
Despite the caution, the new figures revealed that nationally annual house price growth accelerated to 5.2 per cent in December, from five per cent in November.
There were discrepancies around the UK, though all counties still enjoyed healthy rises in property values.
Within the English regions, the South-west showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 7.5 per cent in the year to December 2017.
This was followed by the East Midlands and the West Midlands, which both recorded annual growth of 6.3 per cent. Unusually, the lowest annual growth was in London, where prices increased by 2.5 per cent over the year. Experts said this could finally benefit first-time buyers in the capital.
James Cameron, director of estate agency Vesper Homes, said landlords were now selling up in London and looking for buy-to-let opportunities elsewhere, which “frees up” smaller homes for firsttime buyers.
Across the UK generally, the lowest annual growth was recorded in London’s Kensington and Chelsea where prices fell by 10.7 per cent to stand at £1.2million on average – but still remained the most expensive area.
The least expensive place to buy a property is Burnley where the average house price is £78,000.
The report cautioned that low sales numbers in some areas could lead to volatility in the house price growth figures.
And Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at forecasting group the EY Item Club, said house-buyers are likely to be “concerned about further interest rate hikes in 2018 following November’s first tightening of monetary policy by the Bank of England since 2007.”
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said last week that the market would remain sluggish in 2018. Its chief economist said the “lack of inventory on agents’ books” was continuing to prove “a major challenge”.