House prices rise for seventh month in a row
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House prices continued to edge up in November rising by 0.5%, the latest data from Nationwide reveals.
The average house price now stands at £162,764, from £162,038 in October.
The average house price is currently at a similar level to where it was in early 2006.
House prices are 2.7% higher than in November 2008.
Martin Gahbauer, chief economist at Nationwide, says: “The three-month on three-month rate of change dropped to 2.8% from 3.5% in October and 3.8% in September.
“This suggests that house prices are now rising at a more moderate pace than in the spring and summer months, when they experienced a very strong bounce from the early 2009 lows.”
Gahbauer says that the outlook for the housing market is reliant on the labour market, which has shown encouraging signs of improvement.
He says: “While unemployment has indeed increased noticeably, the rise has not been as rapid and pronounced as previously feared.
“The strategy of cutting hours and pay rather than headcount probably reflects a fear among many employers that they could find themselves short of labour when the economy recovers, thus leaving them less competitive in the longer term.”
A spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that the lack of new instructions has also been driving prices upwards, but adds that this could be set to change with more properties coming on the market.
He says: “Arguably, it would however be even more of concern if house prices were to continue moving smartly ahead through the coming year.
“Accessibility is already a major issue with most traditional metrics of value highlighting the difficulty new entrants to the market have in taking a first step on to the property ladder.”
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