Second index reports house price fall
House prices fell 1.5 per cent in February, after rising for seven months in a row, according to the Halifax.
The lender’s index of UK house prices is in line with that of its rival Nationwide, which last week reported a 1 per cent fall after nine consecutive monthly rises.
Like Nationwide, Halifax suggested the drop could be a seasonal blip caused by bad weather and the end of the government’s stamp duty holiday for properties worth between £125,000 and £175,000.
However it also said more properties are coming onto the market, which is helping to reduce the imbalance between supply and demand.
Halifax puts the average price of a UK home at £166,857, up 4.5 per cent on the same time last year, and 8 per cent on the low point reached in April 2009.
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: ‘Even with more supply coming onto the market, the likelihood is that prices will resume an upward trend albeit at a more modest pace than seen during the latter part of 2009.
‘However the backdrop for the housing market is set to become gradually more challenging as public spending is cut, taxes go up and the cost of mortgage finance begins to rise.’
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