House prices gain 5.6% according to UK HPI

The latest data and analysis from ONS and Land Registry has revealed that average house prices in the UK increased by 5.6% in the year to April, up from 4.5% in the year to March.

According to the UK HPI, the monthly price change for a property in the UK was recorded at 1.6% with the average UK house price now standing at £220,000.

The figures also revealed that the East of England showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 8.1% in the year to April 2017. This was followed by the South West at 6.8%. The lowest annual growth was in the North East, where prices increased by 0.6% over the year.

However while up against March 2017, the Index notes that there has been a "general slowdown in the annual growth rate since mid-2016".

Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, also noted that the figures are a "little historic and compare a relatively strong period this year with a relatively weak one last year following the introduction of the stamp duty surcharge".

Jeremy Duncombe, Director at Legal & General Mortgage Club, commented: “Although the General Election result may bring a period of caution, our housing market has remained resilient to recent geo-political changes, with the wider economic factors being strong. We saw this through the UK’s decision to leave the European Union around this time last year.

Instead, the main factor behind continued house price inflation is still the vast difference between supply and demand. Quite simply, we need to build more affordable homes to allow a greater number of buyers to take their first steps onto the property ladder.”

Paul Smith, CEO of haart estate agents, comments: “House price growth remained persistent in April, with buyers paying on average £12,000 more for their homes than they did pre-Brexit, and borrowing on average 19% more – once again proving the Brexit scaremongers wrong.

Clearly buyers still hold faith in the steadfast UK property market, even amidst political and economic uncertainty – however problems still persist.

As house prices rise we continue to rely far too heavily on the good nature of Bank of Mum and Dad, and stamp duty continues to frustrate both first-time buyers and downsizers. The next Government has the opportunity to commit to more radical structural changes to increase home ownership levels, especially among young people.

However the delay in naming a new housing minister is not a good start.”

Jeff Knight, Director of Marketing at Foundation Home Loans, commented: “Naturally, it will take a while for the dust to settle following the election result, but it’s crucial that the focus on housing supply solutions are not derailed in the meantime. There is clearly cross-party appetite to address supply and affordability, but in the meantime, those aspiring to own their own home can only sit back and watch prices steadily increasing as a result.”

The growth of the PRS is both a sign of progress in meeting demand, and the sheer scale of this demand in the first place. Having a diverse mix of rental property is therefore incredibly important, as is continuing to attract motivated landlords to the sector so that we can maintain a high standard for tenants saving up for that first deposit.”

Russell Quirk, founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, commented: "The latest government data seems to portray a healthier market than other industry sources on the surface, with the monthly rate of growth bucking the downward trends seen in the previous month to climb 1.6%.

That said, transactional volume was down on a month on month basis and it is reported that both buyer and seller demand dwindled, no doubt a knee-jerk reaction to the news of a snap election.

Although the events of the last year, particularly the changing political landscape, do not seem to have had a long-lasting detrimental impact on the UK property market, they have certainly stunted the rate of price growth.

Many UK homeowners and buyers for that matter would have been waiting for the election outcome to provide an air of stability in which to conduct their transaction. The reality, for the immediate future at least, will not provide that and it is likely that the unpredictable swings in house price growth seen over the last few months will now persist for a while longer.”

John Eastgate, Sales and Marketing Director of OneSavings Bank, had this to say: “House prices have been galloping upwards for the past five years, but it seems that softening demand might be starting to rein-in the pace of that growth. Mortgage approvals fell once again in April, reflecting falling consumer confidence that will hardly have been helped by the election outcome.

Until we get some clarity around how the political landscape will unfold, it is difficult to envisage a material change in consumer confidence, so we should expect the pattern of reducing house price growth to continue.  Falling real incomes will remain a challenge for affordability although we should expect to see mortgage rates remaining at record lows for some time to come and this will no doubt support a core level of demand and ensure a modest level of house price growth in the medium term.”

source http://blog.evolutionproperties.co.uk/2017/06/18/house-prices-gain-5-6-according-to-uk-hpi/