UK house prices dropped 1.5% between November
and December last year, Halifax data has shown, the fourth successive
month of price declines.
A typical UK house cost £281,272 in the
last month of 2022, down from £285,425 in November, the bank said today. The
annual rate of growth dropped to 2% in December, from 4.6% in November. However,
the month-on-month drop of 1.5% was less than the 2.4% fall registered
between October and November. This echoes other house price indices that
have come out recently, such as that of the Nationwide,
which showed the cost of an average house went down 0.1% between November and
December last year.
Rightmove found house prices in the UK dropped by 2.1% between November
and December last year, the biggest fall for four years. Kim
Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, pointed out the average cost of a
house remained high - more than 11% above the start of 2021.
She said: “The first half of last year was a very
strong period for sellers, between January 2022 and August 2022, the average
cost of a home rose by over £17,000 to £293,992 (growth of 6%), setting a new
record high.”
She highlighted the market slowed down in the second
half of the year with the cost of living increases and rising interest rates. The Bank of
England put the base interest rate up to 3.5% last month, the highest for 14
years. House prices also took a hit after September’s
disastrous mini-Budget last year. Kinnaird added: “As we enter 2023, the
housing market will continue to be impacted by the wider economic environment
and, as buyers and sellers remain cautious, we expect there will be a reduction
in both supply and demand overall, with house prices forecast to fall around 8%
over the course of the year.”
Just before
Christmas, Zoopla predicted annual house price growth would fall in the middle
of this year. The Halifax data released today showed annual
house price inflation slowed in all the nations and regions of the UK, but the
North East showed the greatest slow down.
Published in Housing Today 6th January 2023