Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments:
“The report released by the Halifax this morning suggests that the UK housing market is ticking over steadily, with house price growth mainly unchanged on the previous quarter. The month on month increase of 1.5% now suggests an all-time high in terms of average house price, and overall the data would seem to indicate that the market is so far performing to expectations this year, including the annual forecast released by the Halifax for 2018 at the end of last year.
In many respects, a report suggesting that house price growth is mainly unchanged represents a ‘no news is good news’ result for the property market, as given the current challenges of low available stock levels, impending interest rate increases and ongoing Brexit uncertainty, the fact that both activity and values seem to be maintaining a stable trajectory does underline the strength of consumer confidence in bricks and mortar. The fact that prices aren’t increasing at a steeper rate does mean that, hopefully, more First Time Buyers will be able to take advantage of both the raft of competitively priced mortgages which are still available, together with the exemption on Stamp Duty and Land Tax and get onto the housing ladder in the coming months. Elsewhere in the market, for those wanting to trade up to a larger property, the current trend of more sustainable price increases together with better mortgage affordability will, hopefully, enable those who want to move home this year with the right environment to do so.”
Read the full Halifax report here.
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