House price inflation in Britain was steady just under 10% in February, the latest figures show. Analysts say this is more evidence that two interest rate hikes have done little to cool a hot property market.
British house prices rose 9.8% in February compared with a year earlier, up slightly from 9.7% year-on-year inflation seen the month before, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The data showed the mid-adjusted average house price in Britain was £160,937 sterling in February, down slightly from £162,559 in January. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
The report came just days after the Bank of England opted to leave interest rates unchanged at 4% despite growing concerns that soaring house prices threaten to push up household debt levels even further. It has raised rates by a quarter point twice since November.
The ODPM data are more subdued than recent figures from mortgage lenders Halifax bank and Nationwide building society which both reported inflation closer to 20% during March, but they still depict a booming housing market.
Today's report coincided with the latest dire prediction from a City analyst on the fate of British housing. Tony Dye, a well-known fund manager famed for correctly predicting the end of the tech-inspired equity market bubble, said in a newspaper article today that British house prices are about to crash and will fall by 30%.
Yet so far there have been few signs that is about to happen, with all evidence pointing to a re-acceleration in house price inflation after a slight cooling late last year. The BoE is predicting a soft landing in prices although some BoE officials have warned in recent remarks that the longer the current boom goes on, the bigger the risk of a sharp correction.
