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House prices fall for fourth quarter in a row

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
11/08/2017

Average UK house prices in the last three months (May-July) were 0.2% lower than in the previous three months (February-April), said Halifax.

This is the fourth successive quarterly fall the lender has recorded.

Despite the gloomy statistic, property prices did tick up by 0.4% in July, taking the average house price to £219,266.

The annual rate of house price inflation was 2.1%, its lowest level since April 2013, and massively down from its 10% peak in March 2016.

Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax Community Bank, said: “House prices continue to remain broadly flat, as they have since the start of the year.
 
“The rise in the employment level by 175,000 in the three months to May helped push the unemployment rate down to 4.5%, the lowest since June 1975. However, this improvement in the jobs market has not, as yet, boosted wage growth, resulting in earnings rising at a slower rate than consumer prices.”

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, added: “There was a time when four falls in a row would have set alarm bells ringing. But so far all the indications are that the market is seeing a cooling rather than a correction.

“The speed of price growth has slowed substantially, and at a national level average prices are still flatlining rather than falling.

“But what growth there is is meandering and listless, with prices being propped up by record low levels of supply.”