Halifax House Price Index up 2.1%

The latest Halifax House Price Index report has been released.  House prices in November were 2.1% higher than in the same month a year earlier with the average house price now £234,625.

However, on a monthly basis, house prices rose by 1.0% and in the latest quarter (September to November) house prices were 0.2% higher than in the preceding three months (June to August.

Russell Galley, Managing Director, Halifax, said:

“Average house prices rebounded somewhat in November, with annual growth of 2.1% being driven by the biggest monthly rise since February, following two months of modest falls.

“Prices are now up by £3,904 since the start of the year. While a degree of uncertainty remains evident, it’s also clear that buyers and sellers are responding to factors such as improved mortgage affordability and the limited supply of available properties.

“It is these issues which we believe will continue to underpin the resilience evident in the market for most of 2019. Over the medium term we expect the emerging trend of modest gains to continue into next year.”

Housing activity

HMRC Monthly data shows a rise in UK home sales in October. UK seasonally adjusted residential transactions in October were 103,680 – up by 4.3% from September and the highest level since July 2017. Year-on-year, transactions in October 2019 were approximately 4.3% higher than October 2018(4.2% higher on a non-seasonally adjusted basis). (Source: HMRC, seasonally-adjusted figures)

Mortgage approvals have fallen slightly from September. Bank of England figures show that the number of mortgages approved to finance house purchases were 64,602 in October – this represents a 1.8% month on month fall, following a slight rise of 0.3% in September. Year on year growth is -3.3%.(Source: Bank of England, seasonally-adjusted figures)

The latest set of results (October 2019) for the RICS Residential Market Survey have shown new buyer enquiries reportedly falling for the second consecutive month, with a net balance of -16% (-17% in September. Agreed sales continued to fall, with a balance of -19% (-27% previously), with new instructions falling for the fourth consecutive month to a net balance of -29% (-37% in September). Near term sales outlook is less pessimistic with the net balance moving to +5% (-7% in September) (Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) monthly report)

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