Nationwide: House price growth softened in March

UK house price growth slowed in March according to the Nationwide Building Society.

In the building society’s House Price Index for March, the annual house price growth rate fell to 3.5%, down from February’s figure of 4.5%.

The average price of a house in the UK fell for the first time in nearly two years.  The average cost of a home dropped 0.3% to £207,308 from the previous month’s figure of £205,846.Economists had predicted a rise of 0.4%.

The survey revealed that the rate of home ownership was at its lowest rate since 1985.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said regional house prices had been a “mixed picture across the UK” in the first quarter of 2017.

He commented: Six regions saw the pace of house price growth accelerate, six saw a deceleration and one (East Midlands) recorded the same rate as the previous quarter. Interestingly, the spread in the annual rate of change between the weakest and strongest performing regions was at its narrowest since 1978 at 6.8 percentage points – the second smallest gap on record.

“The South of England continued to see slightly stronger price growth than the North of England, but there was a further narrowing in the differential. Northern Ireland saw a slight pickup in annual house price growth, while conditions remained relatively subdued in Scotland and Wales.

The report also revealed that home ownership in the 35-44 year old bracket had fallen from 74% in 2006 to the current figure of 56%.

If you would like to read more articles like this then please click here

The post Nationwide: House price growth softened in March appeared first on UK Construction Online.