Britain’s house prices experienced a slight drop month-on-month for the first time since August 2015 as demand for homeownership continues its fall.
According to Nationwide, house prices across the UK currently average at £207,308. When only looking at London, prices increase dramatically, to an average of £478,782.
Other figures, provided by the Government, show that the rate of homeownership has fallen to its lowest level in over 30 years. And over the last 10 years, since 2007, private rents have increased by 75% to about 4.5 million households currently.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said:
“The counterpart to this trend has been robust growth in the private rental sector, with 20 per cent of households in England now privately rented, a record high, up from 12 per cent 10 years ago.”
The long-term effects of this growing rental market may be dampened slightly in the short-term by a squeeze on the market due to the Government trying to depress any further house price growth.
And whilst London has experienced a drop in numbers of build and sales since the beginning of 2017, property up North continues its growth.
Real estate firm JLL even reported a drop in numbers of properties breaking ground of 75% over the last twelve months in the capital. The report named the changes made to stamp duty, which hit the upper end of the market particularly hard, as one of the main factors. It even stated that some developers have decided to scrap their projects entirely, with indications for some of them to move further up North for their projects.
Carolyn Uphill, chairman of the NLA, said:
“It looks like central London is simply becoming too expensive for most people, regardless of whether you want to buy, invest or rent.”
