{"id":14313,"date":"2018-03-30T12:15:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T11:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=14313"},"modified":"2023-10-09T14:31:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T13:31:08","slug":"uk-house-price-growth-slows-slightly-but-london-diluting-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/2018\/03\/30\/uk-house-price-growth-slows-slightly-but-london-diluting-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"UK house price growth slows slightly – but London is diluting the figures"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Nationwide house price index for March has revealed that house prices across the country remain relatively stable despite a small slowdown in growth, but the north-south divide is having a bigger effect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Property prices across the UK grew by an average of 2.1% in March compared to the same month the previous year, a small decrease from February’s 2.2% rise – and the smallest increase seen since August 2017. However, the change represents only a very small adjustment in the housing market as a whole<\/a>, indicating that despite the current political climate<\/a>, the sector remains relatively buoyant, with low unemployment levels and fewer properties on the market supporting house prices.
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\nThe difference in performance between London and parts of the north<\/a> has also had an impact on the final figures, as the capital was the weakest performing region in March’s figures with a 1% decrease in house prices annually – the only region to see a fall. House prices in London are still the highest in the country<\/a>, at around \u00a3331,047 according to Nationwide, but the number of homeowners<\/a> there has fallen from 57% 10 years ago to 47% today.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, said: “London’s property market shows no sign of giving up its wooden spoon, as the slowdown in the capital worsens.<\/p>\n

“What began as a cooling of prices in the capital’s prime and super-prime<\/a> postcodes is turning into an ever more widespread frost.”<\/p>\n

Strong house price growth in the north and Midlands supports market<\/h4>\n

By contrast, for the fourth consecutive quarter, regions in the north of England have seen higher average property price growth than regions in the south. The West Midlands<\/a> enjoyed the largest annual change in the first three months of the year, of 4.9%, followed by the East Midlands<\/a> with 4.5%.<\/p>\n

The north-west<\/a>\u00a0also recorded strong house price growth of 3.2% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year, while London has seen an overall 1% decrease in the same period.<\/p>\n

Brian Murphy, head of lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau, believes that the current north-south divide in house price performance is no surprise.<\/p>\n

He said: “Market conditions in London and the south-east would appear to be somewhat lacklustre when compared to other areas.<\/p>\n

\n

“This proves that consumer confidence is still very strong outside of the capital<\/a> and its commuter belt, as underscored by the ongoing paucity of stock in these areas.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, commented: \u201cLooking ahead, much will depend on how broader economic conditions evolve, especially in the labour market, but also with respect to interest rates<\/a>. Overall, we expect house prices to be broadly flat, with a marginal gain of around 1% over the course of 2018.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest Nationwide house price index for March has revealed that house prices across the country remain relatively stable despite a small slowdown in growth, but the north-south divide is having a bigger effect. Property prices across the UK grew by an average of 2.1% in March compared to the same month the previous year,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":4451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,42,6],"tags":[33,11,341],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6097230,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14313\/revisions\/6097230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}