House Prices Up March 2015

House Prices Up March 2015.

Halifax has released its latest house price index for March 2015. Driven by low inflation, a reduced expectation of interest rate increases and an increase in consumer confidence, house prices have risen both for the month of March and also for the last three months as follows:

• Monthly change +0.4%
• Three month change +2.6%
• Yearly change +8.1%

The average house price in the United Kingdom has also risen to £192,970.

The above figures show that house price rises have moved back to a similar level seen back towards the end of the summer last year and published in September 2014, where quarterly rises were at 2.7%.

Likewise, yearly increases appear to be holding their own at 8.1%, down from over 10% in the summer of last year and we suggest that this minor house price blip over the last 6 months will reflect in the figures published over the next 6 to 12 months.  However, make no mistake house prices are still rising and still rising at a healthy rate.

In addition, the government move with the ‘Help to Buy ISA’ will stimulate the first-time buyer market which in turn will promote people moving up the property ladder and so house prices will continue to rise, we suspect for the next two years or so.

In real terms, if the 2.6% quarterly trend continues, this will see house prices rise at 10.4% per year again soon.