UK house prices bounce back with 2.1 per cent rise
UK house prices were 2.1 per cent higher last month then they were a year ago at an average price of £234,625, according to the Halifax House Price Index.
Prices also grow on a monthly basis, rising 1.0 per cent from October.
Read more: UK house prices: Growth picks up in November
It means an end to back-to-back months of declining growth as November’s gains recouped the previous months losses.
The average house price is now the highest it has been all year, surpassing the previous high of February’s £234,195.
UK house prices also posted quarterly gains, with the latest quarter, including September, October and November, 0.2 per cent up on the preceding three months.
Russell Galley, Managing Director, Halifax, said: “Prices are now up by £3,904 since the start of the year. While a degree of uncertainty remains evident, it’s also clear that buyers and sellers are responding to factors such as improved mortgage affordability and the limited supply of available properties.
“It is these issues which we believe will continue to underpin the resilience evident in the market for most of 2019. Over the medium term we expect the emerging trend of modest gains to continue into next year.”
London growth the key
The increase in annual growth seen in the London has “started to bubble away again”, says Lucy Pendleton, founder director of independent estate agents James Pendleton.
“In the capital, a big jump in the number of sales going to best-and-final offers is going hand in hand with increasing footfall through front doors as buyers’ appetites return.
“Steady year-on-year growth in transaction levels of late is also adding to confidence that recent outright annual falls in price, particularly in London and the South East, won’t necessarily become a self-fulfilling final destination for other regions of the country, many of which have continued to rise in value.”
‘January jumpstart’
Despite the “familiar pattern of halting progress” and “widening polarisation between buyers”, homes are becoming “steadily more affordable”, says Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders.
“For now, the election has brought forward the traditional December slowdown, adding to the build-up of delayed demand,” he says.
“This is likely to give estate agents plenty of free time in December, but a clear election result next week could turbocharge the typical New Year surge in demand.
“The property market continues to hold up its head after a year it would rather forget, and an end to Britain’s political limbo could deliver a January jumpstart.”