Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments on the Nationwide House Price Index:

“The report issued by the Nationwide this morning is based on lending for house purchases at post survey approvals stage, and as such provides us with a reliable insight into the UK housing market from one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders.

The figures this morning report a slight cooling in average house price growth in October, however it should be noted that prices, on average, still rose last month – just not at the same level as we’ve seen previously. It’s important that we bear this in mind, as monthly indices can sometimes be volatile, and therefore we would need to see at least three months’ worth of data before any significant trend could be reported.

Ongoing political and economic uncertainty has meant that in some areas, discretionary movers are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach at the moment which has meant that the market in some pockets is more subdued, however that’s not the case everywhere. Indeed, on the ground in regions such as Yorkshire and the Humber, Scotland, Wales and the Midlands, consumer sentiment with regards property appears to still be very positive and markets are continuing to function very well. This has meant that in these areas, property values have seen greater average annual increases than the headline national rate of growth.

Whilst the Chancellor’s ‘feel good’ budget on Monday delivered little for the majority of home movers, it seems to have been well received by consumers overall, therefore as we enter the final sprint of the Autumn market before thoughts turn to the Christmas break, it’s quite possible that the market will continue to tick over at reasonable levels, although without the fireworks that some had hoped for by this stage in the year.”