House price inflation lowest in a decade: FT index

LONDON: House price inflation dropped to 2.7 percent in December, the lowest in a decade, according to figures from a Financial Times’ House Price Index.

The Average house price inched up 0.5 percent to close at £196,042 at yearend, the study shows. The growth in house prices however, was not uniform throughout the UK, with the northern England reporting a rise of 7.6 percent year-on-year for the last quarter.

The overall picture shows many contrasts. Property prices in the southwest indicated only 0.3 percent growth and in the south-east they grew only 1.1 percent whereas in the capital house prices were up 5 percent in the year to November on a market trend which failed to prompt similar action from the rest of the country. It is interesting to note that London, for the past five years, had largely lagged behind the rest of the country in house price growth.

Reading between the figures, analysts opine that a house market crash is now just as unlikely as a boom. Increased affordability and growing levels of personal debt are likely to keep overall growth at minimum levels, the experts believe.

The FT index is regarded as a more reliable indicator of the trends in the property market, as the data are compiled from the official Land Registry which records every property transaction in the UK.