House price growth continues to slow

27 Mar 2015

Latest figures from Nationwide building society show that UK house prices increased more slowly in March.

Average increases were just 0.1% but some areas of the UK show that house prices are lower than they were in January.

Chief Economist at Nationwide, Robert Gardner, said: ‘While house price growth has moderated across the UK, there is still significant regional variation. Prices in London and the south of England continued to see the strongest rates of annual growth, though there was a noticeable softening this quarter, particularly in London.

‘Price growth also continued to cool in the north-west of England, Scotland and Wales, even though prices in these regions remain some way below their 2007 peak.’

The mortgage lender also reports that the housing market in general has been relatively quiet, with the number of approved mortgages down 20% in the year to January 2015.

Plans to cool price growth were implemented by regulators last year, after rates reached a national average of 12% yearly growth, while the rate in London has only now slowed to 12.7% – down from 17.8% in the final quarter of 2014.