April’s Halifax House Price Index (HPI) reveals average prices are up 10.8% in a year, to a record high of £286,079.
The latest Halifax HPI report shows that house prices increased by 1.1% in April, and is the tenth consecutive monthly rise, the longest run since 2016. Prices have now increased by £47,568 in two years. Previous market analysis shows that it took the five and a half years for the market to rise by this much in the past.
Northern Ireland is now the UK area with strongest house price inflation, but the rate of house price growth is still expected to slow as incomes are squeezed by the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates.
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown commented:
“The undying commitment of buyers, and the dearth of properties on the market, lies behind the eye-watering price rises. Zoopla figures earlier this week showed that the demand for property remains 58% above the five-year average.
There are still good reasons why buyers are so committed. There are plenty with lockdown savings they want to make the most of. They recognise this could be the biggest lump sum they build up for some time, and they don’t want to lose the opportunity to use it.
Meanwhile, although mortgage rates are rising, they haven’t reached the kinds of levels that prove repellent. The Banks have enough cash in the coffers to keep rises to a minimum, so despite the Bank of England raising rates 0.9 percentage points since December, the average mortgage rate is trailing well behind.”
Tom Brown, Managing Director of Real Estate at Ingenious, said:
“Whilst interest rates and inflation present an ongoing threat to the wider economy, we continue to see UK residential property markets remaining robust, resilient and performing well. The picture is not uniform across the country and across all price points however, requiring expertise to interpret the headline numbers. For example, city centre flats in some locations don’t always reflect the same fundamentals as people search further afield for more outside space, homes with gardens, practical workspaces and quality infrastructure. When analysing residential opportunities, it is key to understand the subsectors and the regions in which they are located as it can be quite misleading to look at the market too broadly. At Ingenious, we blend this market expertise with the ability to provide flexible, cost effective financing solutions for our clients by sourcing residential opportunities from across the UK based solely on individual merit.”
Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, commented:
“Halifax’s latest report shows an increase in the average house price which reiterates what our members tell us of a continued buoyant sales market despite homeowners facing a cost of living inflation.
Our latest Housing Market Report records a rise in new potential registered buyers per member estate agency branch to 84 in March, however, with the recent announcement made by the Bank of England on the increase in interest rates, this will undoubtedly show some effect within the market in the coming months.”
Walid Koudmani, chief market analyst at financial brokerage XTB, comments:
“The latest Halifax HPI pointed to another sharp increase in UK house prices with the tenth consecutive monthly rise, the longest run since 2016. However, while this is a concerning situation, the rate of house price growth is expected to slow later this year as incomes fail to keep up in a climate of record inflation and general cost increases. Until that point, we could be seeing a continuation of this trend which has led house prices to reach historic levels.”
