Yearly house price increases creep up in April…

UK house prices are continuing to rise, according to the world’s largest building society Nationwide.
Being one of the nation’s biggest mortgage providers, Nationwide reports that between the months of March and April, the housing market gathered pace and produced a 1% rise, the largest monthly increase since June last year.  For the first time in seven months, a figure of 5.2% growth has also been recorded.

Nationwide’s Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, commented:

“The pick-up in price growth has occurred even though the pace of activity in the housing market has remained fairly subdued in recent months. Indeed, the number of mortgage approvals is still well below its long run average and 20% below the levels recorded in early 2014.“

The strength of the economy and relatively subdued pace of activity in the housing market remains something of an anomaly.  It is possible that heightened uncertainty ahead of the election is weighing on activity, though there is no compelling evidence from previous UK elections to suggest a strong impact.

“Healthy labour market conditions and continued low mortgage rates should help underpin housing demand in the quarters ahead.” 

According to Capital Economics, the monthly increase was “strong” and they projected a 6% price rise this year.  Matthew Pointon, Capital’s Property Economist affirmed the this growth and said:

“Record high employment, combined with record low mortgage rates, means the conditions are in place for further price gains this year”.

For our region, East Anglia saw a quarterly rise of 1.1% and a 7.8% increase for the last 12 months, although this measure has softened slightly from 9.8%.