Despite all of the speculation that the housing bubble is about to burst and that negative equity could make a reappearance, the Halifax is not convinced.
According to their latest research, the housing market remains strong and despite continuing price rises, affordability is manageable. Their prediction for this year is that houses will grow in price by around 9%. Although this is a massive slowdown on last year, it is still much more welcome than the other possibilities.
Halifax said that the marked reduction in growth could be due to less demand as properties appear to have been sluggish over Christmas and January. However, the north of England seems to have bucked the trend with transactions actually increasing. Is this the next boom area?
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