UK house prices rose 9.5% in 2015, says Halifax

According to Halifax, UK house prices rose by 9.5% making it the fastest annual increase in nine years.

In the last month, the average house price grew by 1.7%, bringing the average price of a home to £208,286, according to the Halifax index.

Martin Ellis, Housing Economist at Halifax said: “This was the second successive month that this measure has been below 2%, indicating a possible slight softening in the underlying rate of price growth.

“There remains, however, a substantial gap between demand and supply with the latest figures showing a further decline in the number of properties available for sale. This situation is unlikely to change significantly in the short-term, resulting in continuing upward pressure on prices.”

One reason for the increase in prices is the continuing shortage of properties for sale, particularly in London and the south east of England. House building is running at around half the rate needed to meet the demand, with little sign things will change, the London market may be reaching its peak.

Hansen Lu, a property economist at Capital Economics, said “with house prices already high and growing much faster than wages, we expect price growth to slow markedly during 2016”.

Newham in East London had the largest increase, with prices rising by 22% in 2015, compared to 12% for London as a whole.

The last time UK house prices rose so quickly was in 2006, when values soared by 9.9%.

However, the rate of increase was measured to be much lower by other lenders such as Nationwide, who said that price roses by 4.5% in 2015.

 

 

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