British house prices rose 0.5% in November, the same as in October, suggesting that a rapid initial rebound from the five-year low set in February is now slowing, mortgage lender Nationwide said today.
Nationwide reported monthly house price growth of above 1% over the summer, but the lender said three-month growth in house prices has eased since September, pointing to a more modest recovery from last year's slump in house prices.
House prices rose 2.8% in the three months to November, lower than the 3.5% for the three months to October. The average British property is now worth £162,764 sterling - roughly the same as in early 2006 and 2.7% more than last November.
Last month Nationwide reported the first annual rise in house prices since March 2008.
'House prices are now rising at a more moderate pace than in the spring and summer months, when they experienced a very strong bounce from the early 2009 lows,' said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's chief economist.
'The outlook for the housing market remains crucially dependent on labour market conditions, and here recent developments have been somewhat more encouraging than might have been expected,' he added.
Despite a longer recession than many other industrialised economies, unemployment in Britain has risen more slowly than most economists had forecast, and unexpectedly fell to 7.8% of the labour force in the three months to September.
