British house prices still rising
Thursday, 31 January 2002British house prices rose by 0.2% during January as consumer confidence remained strong despite bad global economic news, according to the latest figures released today.
The increase lifted the average price of a property to £93,231 sterling - 11.7% higher than the same month in 2001, Nationwide said.
But the building society said a rise in unemployment would slow the market down during 2002, and it expects prices to grow by just 6% during the year. It added that the annual rate of house price inflation had already fallen more than 2% compared with December's rate of 13.8%.
'Despite pessimistic news from the global economy and the UK manufacturing sector, the housing market is holding up well,' the Nationwide said. 'The reasons are straightforward, with strong real take-home pay and the lowest mortgage rates for 40 years offsetting fears over increased job uncertainty'.
It added that unemployment still remained below the one million mark, while take-home pay was rising at its fastest rate since the 1980s.
Homeowners' confidence has been further boosted by a 85% leap in house prices since 1996, meaning that values have risen by an average of around 1% a month for the past six years, the society said. Equity withdrawal rose by 46% during 2001, with non-purchase lending reaching £41 billion.
