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The average House priest in the UK grew up more than expected in January in a new record, raised by the end of approaching a property tax and demonstrating sustainability in the face of strained affordability, according to the Halifax Mortgage Lender.
Home prices increased 0.7 percent in the month after a decrease of 0.2 percent in December, receiving the average asset price at £ 299,138 according to new data on Friday.
The growth was much stronger than the 0.2 percent increase expected by the economists surveyed by Reuters.
However, the annual price increase was slightly facilitated to 3 percent, from 3.4 percent last month.
Amanda Bryden, the head of the Halifax Mortgage, said the UK housing market had begun the year in a positive note. “
“The possibility of affordability is still a challenge for many potential buyers, but market resistance is obvious. There is a strong demand for new mortgages and increased lending,” she said, adding that some buyers may first have been eager to complete purchases before an increase in the task of the stamp in late March.
From April, among other changes, buyers for the first time will start paying the task of the stamp for properties that cost £ 300,000 or more, from the current threshold of £ 425,000. This comes with the end of a temporary celebration of the stamp task presented in the October budget.
Bryden said that despite the geopolitical uncertainties and consumer trust, the assets market was supported by recent cuts of interest rates and wages that increased faster than inflation.
On Thursday, the Bank of England lowered its policy interest rate by one quarter of a percentage percentage to 4.5 percent, the lowest level since June 2023. It was the third shortening since August last year.
Boe Dave Dave Ramsden said the gradual decrease in rates was fed at mortgage rates, supporting the demand.
“We think the apartment market is growing,” he told reporters after cutting Thursday.
While they were still under their peak in the summer of 2023, mortgage rates were marked at the end of last year and remain higher than in 2021, before the BOE began to increase the costs of borrowing from historic landings.
Friday figures oppose data separated by the mortgage lender nationwide, which showed that house prices increased only 0.1 percent in January, a slowdown in the growth rate.
Halifax has a sample greater than nationwide, with about 15,000 transactions compared to 12,000, and a concentration in the northern regions that can generate short -term changes.
However, both nationwide and Halifax indicate that house prices grew during the pandemia, then fell as the mortgage rates increased over the last two years and then healed in 2024.
In January, the average house price was 25 percent higher than in February 2020, in front of the Pandemia, according to Halifax.
The lender said Northern Ireland continued to have the strongest annual growth of the UK asset price, although 5.9 percent in January was facilitated by 7.3 percent in December.
London kept the highest average home price in the UK, at £ 548,288, 2.8 percent from a year ago.
