New study shows house prices rose sharply at the beginning of 2019
03-16-2019
It's due to the lack of properties on the market.
By Lisa Walden 
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The latest Halifax House Price Index has revealed that house prices were up sharply at the beginning of this year, due to a lack of properties on the market.
It shows us that house prices in the three months to February were 2.8 per cent higher than in the same three months a year earlier. In the last quarter (December – February), house prices were 1.8 per cent higher than in the preceding three months, with the average house price now sitting at £236,800.
Halifax have explained that a shortage of properties on the market helped support prices, as well as the UK's current political climate.
'House prices have grown on an annual, quarterly and monthly basis for the first time since October 2018, taking the average house price to £236,800,' Russell Galley, Managing Director at Halifax explains in the new index.
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'The shortage of houses for sale will certainly be playing a role in supporting prices. House price growth is now at 1.8 per cent, an increase from the 0.6 per cent fall last month, and back at the rate we saw from July to September 2018.
'Annual house price growth at 2.8 per cent, is within our expectations, but is fairly subdued compared to 2015 and 2016, when the average growth rate was 8.3 per cent. People are still facing challenges in raising a deposit which means we continue to expect subdued price growth for the time being. However, the number of sales in January was right on the five year average and, at over 100,000 for the fifth consecutive month, the overall resilience of the market is still evident,' Galley adds.
Elsewhere, it also reveals that in January there were 101,170 home sales, which was very close to the five-year average of 101,291.