House prices and home loans showing signs of stabilisation
HOUSE PRICES rose 1.6 per cent in June on the previous month, narrowing the annual decline to 10.7 per cent, according to official government data published yesterday.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said that UK house prices rose by 2.6 per cent in the quarter ending June 2009, compared to a fall of 3.8 per cent for the quarter ending March 2009.
Quarterly data tends to be more reflective than volatile monthly data.
Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight, said: “The DCLG data – following hard on the heels of a more upbeat July survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors – will fuel currently mounting belief that the housing market has turned decisively as it has benefits from sharply reduced mortgage interest rates and the substantial fall in house prices from their 2007 peak levels.”
Separately, data from the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed further signs of stabilisation in the mortgage market. There was a 23 per cent rise in the number of house loan purchases to 45,000 in June on the previous month. But this still remains six per cent lower than in June last year.