Due to economic uncertainty
According to the leading mortgage lender Halifax, UK house prices grew much more slowly in 2017 than in the previous year. At the end of 2017, the average house price across the UK was £225,021.
Halifax said the prices rose by 2.7 per cent in 2017, compared with a 6.5 per cent increase in 2016. This is the lowest rise since 2012, driven mainly by a squeeze on real wage growth and continuing uncertainty over the economy, it added.
Talking about the trend this year, Russell Galley, the managing director of Halifax Community Bank sai: “Nationally house prices in 2018 are likely to be supported by the ongoing shortage of properties for sale, low levels of housebuilding, high employment and a continuation of low interest rates making mortgage servicing affordable in relative terms.”
“Overall we expect annual price growth to continue in the range of 0-3% at the end 2018.”
During December last year, Halifax said the prices fell by 0.6 per cent, the first monthly decline since June last year. The annual growth rate declined to 2.7 per cent in the three months to December from 3.9 per cent in the previous three months.
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