Halifax's latest house price index figures have shown that the fastest growing area in the UK in terms of house prices was Crewe. The growth amounted to a massive 58%.
Halifax also stated that all of the top end growth in prices in the UK was outside the South of the country.
A number of industry commentators have given their views on house price inflation, not least that most believe interest rates will increase to 5% by the end of the year, but then fall back to around 4.5% in 2006.
Our View
As we have said previously, the rest of the country follows London and the South East around 12 months later. We believe the static / slow prices in the South East are a taste of things to come in the next year or so.
In terms of interest rate rises, we believe they will happen before the end of the year. The Government needs to curb borrowing and spending and will do this by putting interest rates up.
How quickly borrowing and spending reduces will dictate any fall in interest rates over the next couple of years.