UK house prices rise by more than expected in November – Halifax

LONDON (Reuters) – British house prices rose by more than expected in November and for a fifth month in a row, mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday.

House prices rose 0.5 percent month-on-month after a 0.3 percent rise in October, Halifax said, topping the consensus in a Reuters poll of economists for a 0.2 percent rise.

But house price growth slowed on an annual basis to 3.9 percent in the three months to November, following a 4.5 percent rise in October.

Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax Community Bank, said:

“The imbalance between supply and demand continues to support house prices, which doesn’t look like changing in the near future.”

Other data suggest the housing market is slowing. Nationwide, a different mortgage lender, has reported a weaker pace of house price growth recently and the Bank of England has said mortgage approvals have fallen to a more than 1-year low.

The figures come two weeks after Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a budget that included measures to help first-time buyers and spur more housebuilding.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy, said:

“Even if successful, the chancellor’s measures to boost house building in the budget will take time to have a significant effect so are unlikely to markedly influence house prices in the near term at least.”

He added that house prices are likely to rise between 2 and 3 percent in 2018.

Kindly shared by Reuters