Official data indicates further stability for UK housing market
HOUSE prices rose 1.9 per cent in July on the previous month but were still 8.3 per cent less than they were in July 2008, data from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) revealed yesterday.
The less volatile measure of the three months to July showed that house prices rose 2.1 per cent compared to a fall of 2.8 per cent for the first quarter. The average price of a UK home stood at £196,387 in July 2009.
Terraced houses saw a 3.2 per cent in seasonally-adjusted average prices, while semi-detached house prices rose by 2.7 per cent and detached homes by 2.6 per cent, according to the DCLG data, which provides belated evidence on the housing market.
First-time buyers were paying 9.1 per cent less than they did in July 2008 while former owner occupiers were paying eight per cent less. New build home prices fell 12.1 per cent on the previous year while previously owned dwellings fell by just eight per cent.
Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight said: “The DCLG data provide yet further evidence that house prices troughed around March/April and have been firming since.”