More great news for home owners in Surrey and Hampshire.
The Halifax House Price Index
According to Halifax, UK house prices rose seven and a half percent in 2013. The figures, which include the whole of the country, are seasonally adjusted – meaning that things like temporary slumps over periods like Christmas are taken into account. This is undoubtedly good news for homeowners who have been worried by a lack of growth in their investment since the global economic crisis took hold. It is also welcome news for anyone who has been thinking about re-entering the housing market as well as first time buyers. Lending rates which are set by the Bank of England have enjoyed historic lows, so taking a mortgage now before prices really start to heat up could be the smart move.
Of course, for some people who have been caught in negative equity with their homes, clinging on for the good times to come back has been the only option. Now that the index of UK house prices is looking positive, more and more people that fall into this group should begin to move out of it, allowing them to move to a new home or re-mortgage, as necessary. It is worth noting that for the final quarter – that is October, November and December – of last year house prices rose on average by 1.9 per cent. This constitutes some impressive recovery which will only encourage an increasing number of trades in the housing market as people feel more confident that they will achieve their asking price once an agent puts a for sale sign up.
The changes in housing prices have been monitored by Halifax since 1983 when it began its index. This indicates that the company is able to demonstrate underlying trends which are part of the wider economic conditions and not a mere flash-in-the-pan survey which could be skewed by one or two big sales. The average house price in the UK now stands at £173, 467. As you might expect, London and the south east of England still leads the way with the highest house prices. Nevertheless, Scotland enjoyed an upturn in house prices which saw growth in some areas that outstripped other regions. According to LSL/Acadata, which monitored property prices north of the border, average prices gained more than £5,000 over the course of 2013. However, the average Scottish house price remained beneath that of the UK average, at £146,696 as of December.
Mark Carney, who is Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the G20’s Financial Stability Board, echoed the finding of the Halifax’s study. He said that the UK’s house price recovery was a generalised phenomenon across the country everywhere except for Northern Ireland. Annual growth in housing in Northern Ireland did grow at a healthy rate of four per cent. However, this trailed the rest of the UK and Northern Irish growth did falter a little towards the end of the year.
Positivity about house prices remains high, despite the slightly mixed picture. Halifax said that it expected growth in the housing sector to continue in the same manner in 2014 as it had done last year. Indeed, the number of transactions in the market is now likely to exceed the one million mark which would be the first time since 2007.
