| UK
House Prices Situation: Up 1.3pc in January
UK
House Prices Forecast: Growth rate slowing as year progresses
Housing
Market May Have Peaked – Latest Figures
The
latest figures from the Halifax bank show that house
prices rose by an average of 1.3 per cent in
January. However, following December's slight fall,
this means that the overall year-on-year growth
rate has remained constant at 9.9 percent.
While
this sounds positive, many industry experts believe
that this result, coupled with the fall in mortgage
approvals in December, could indicate falling levels
of consumer confidence and the beginning of a market
slowdown.
Halifax's
house price growth forecast for 2007 is 4 per
cent, and despite the relative strength of January's
figures Halifax's chief economist, Martin Ellis, believes
that the combination of below retail price inflation
householder earnings and increased interest
rates will mean "that annual house
price inflation will ease from 10% to 4% by
the end of 2007."
Additionally,
Ellis commented that the .."mixed pattern of monthly
price rises and falls in December and
January is consistent with a slowing market."
Reuters
Poll Suggests Market Has Peaked
A
poll of twenty-five leading economists, conducted by
Reuters, suggests that most economists believe the
housing market has now peaked. Of the twenty-five
surveyed, eighteen agreed that the market had peaked
and fifteen economists said that they believed that
housing was overvalued, with none believing that it
was undervalued.
Belfast
Boom Could Continue for 18 Months
Property
prices in Northern Ireland have grown
rapidly over the last few years, notching up an incredible
36 per cent growth in 2006 alone. Belfast has seen some
of the biggest increases, and a leading
Belfast estate agent has now predicted that this growth
could continue for another 18 months before tailing
off.
Ben
McQuoid, of McQuoid Property Consultants, is also a
RICS spokesman and in a recent interview in with Belfast
Today he ascribed much of the continued growth to investors,
who are heavily buying into the market to cash in on
its rapid growth.
Although
ultimately unsustainable, McQuoid expects it to be "another
18 months here until it flattens off, although I don't
think the market will go backwards."
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