UK house prices rose 7.5% in the year to November.
New figures for Halifax show average house prices hit an average of £253,240 in November, the highest annual increase since June 2016.
The housing market has been buoyant this year since the end of the first lockdown, as people scramble to get over the stamp duty holiday and find more space. Although there are signs that it is cooling down, it is currently still at a very high level.
Halifax managing director Russell Galley said the average transaction price was £15,000 higher than in June. He added: “The current market continues to be shaped by the desire for more space, urban-to-rural migration, and signs of an increasing trend toward working from home in the future.”
“With unemployment expected to peak around the middle of next year and the UK economy not expected to fully recover the ground lost in 2020 for many years, housing market activity will A slowdown is likely over the next 12 months.”
Samuel Toomes, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, also said house prices were likely to cool down after the stamp duty holiday. “The combination of a weaker labor market and higher mortgage rates, reflecting increased lending risks in the current environment, will reduce activity levels next year and lower home prices this year,” he said in a note. “This indicates that the rise in prices is partially reversing.” ”
