The Halifax claims that the economic recovery coupled with the current record low interest rates led to house prices rising at their fastest rate for four months in July.
The average cost of a home is now £167,425, an increase of 0.6% and a rise of 4.6% on this time last year. However, the average home still costs 16% less than it did three years ago. The Halifax does not expect to see any dramatic changes in house prices for the remainder of the year and the lender believes the housing market is slowing down.
This latest report from the Halifax is at odds with recent data from Hometrack Ltd and the Nationwide Building Society. They recently published data showing a 0.1% drop in prices last month.
There’s some good news for buy to let investors who are shopping around for a contractor mortgage. The Mortgage Works has announced that it is reducing its 25% deposit requirement to 20%. They are the first UK mortgage lending company to take this step and the hope is that other lenders will now follow suit.
There are also further signs that more optimism is creeping into the market as Nationwide and the Woolwich have cut the rates on their fixed rate mortgages by 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.
Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey Plc, one of the UK’s leading housebuilders, posted a pre-tax profit of £19.6m in the first half of 2010. House builders in the UK suffered one of their worst downturns in decades as tight mortgage lending criteria pushed sales down.
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Image: Up / Down [Exeter] by Viscentico / Sento
