Could the property market be brightening up in line with the weather? Following news central England has experienced the warmest spring on record, government figures on house prices appeared sunnier than many recent reports.
The Land Registry’s latest house price index found the value of homes had increased by 5.6% in the year to April 2017 – a 1.1% rise on the previous month.
It found prices in London lagged a little with a 4.7% annual gain for the same period, although this was 1.5% higher than in March. For the capital, this is the first increase in 11 months.
Emoov.co.uk founder and CEO Russell Quirk said: “The latest government data seems to portray a healthier market than other industry sources on the surface, with the monthly rate of growth bucking the downward trends seen in the previous month to climb 1.6%.
“That said, transactional volume was down month-on-month and it is reported that both buyer and seller demand dwindled, no doubt a knee-jerk reaction to the news of a snap election.
“Many UK homeowners and buyers for that matter would have been waiting for the election outcome to provide an air of stability in which to conduct their transaction.
“The reality, for the immediate future at least, will not provide that and it is likely that the unpredictable swings in house price growth seen over the last few months will now persist for a while longer.”
Data from Rics for May revealed a 14th consecutive month of falling numbers of sales instructions with average estate agency stock levels close to record lows and “an acute shortage of stock” continuing to underpin prices for the near future.
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