According to Nationwide Building Society the annual house price jumped to a 14-month high in January 2020 across the UK.

Property values were 1.9% higher than a year earlier – up from 1.4% in December 2019. The average house price is now £215,897 up £615 from December 2019. Other reports suggest this growth is due to the “Boris Bounce” but as the Brexit process continues, Nationwide is forecasting flat house price growth throughout 2020.

Other property reports are showing growth.

 

Zoopla shows the annual house price growth in the UK’s 20 biggest cities hit a two year high of 3.9% in January. With Edinburgh growing by 6.1% and London 1.9%. Rightmove reported that the average price of properties arriving on the market went up by 2.3% between December and January.

Can the pickup in demand be sustained?

 

February and March will be the months to see if it continues. If low levels of housebuilding continue then a shortage of supply will continue to help prices increase. Housebuilding rates continue to fail to meet government targets of more than 200,000 new homes a year, with the gulf in house prices between London and the rest of the country narrowing by almost a fifth since the Brexit vote.

Daniel Tomlinson a research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said “Weaker growth in London’s population had helped to cool house prices.

The fact that prices are no longer racing way in the capital will be welcome news for some young people, but home ownership still remains far from affordable for many and very large regional differences in house prices are set to a feature of the UK economy for a long time to come.”

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