UK House Prices Stall In March
(RTTNews) - UK house prices remained flat as the stamp duty holiday ended at the end of March, data from the Nationwide Building Society showed on Tuesday. House prices showed nil growth in March compared to February. This followed an increase of 0.4 percent in the previous month.
On a yearly basis, house price growth remained unchanged at 3.9 percent in March.
These price trends are unsurprising, given the end of the stamp duty holiday at the end of March, Nationwide Chief Economist Robert Gardner said.
He observed that transactions associated with mortgage approvals made in March, especially toward the end of the month, would be unlikely to complete before the deadline.
Gardner said the market is set to remain a little soft in the coming months since activity will be brought forward to avoid the additional tax obligations.
However, activity is expected to pick up steadily as the summer progresses despite wider economic uncertainties in the global economy, Gardner noted.
He said the unemployment rate is low, earnings are rising at a healthy pace in real terms, household balance sheets are strong and borrowing costs are likely to moderate a little if Bank Rate is lowered further in the coming quarters.
Data released on Monday showed that mortgage approvals decreased slightly in February. Approvals for house purchases were down 600 to 65,500 in February.
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