UK House Prices Situation at 26 10 2007: Short-term fluctuations but little real growth

UK House Prices Forecast: Overall weakening trend in most areas

IMF Report Highlights Risk of Housing Downturn

A new report published by the International Monetary Fund has highlighted the risk of a downturn in Britain's property market.

The report's authors found that average UK house prices are currently nine times average income - up from only five time average incomes in 2001. The report concluded that UK house prices were overvalued by around 40%, giving considerable cause for concern.

Rightmove Reports Price Rise In September!

Despite reports of falling prices, Rightmove reported an average increase in property asking prices of 2.6% in the month to October 6th.

However, it should be noted that these are asking prices - not selling prices - and there is no guarantee the properties will sell for these figures. Even if they do, this increase only reverses August's fall of 2.6% in average prices - leaving a net gain of just 0.1%.

Highlighting this overall slowing trend, Rightmove's rolling three-month average growth rate dropped from 1.5% to just 0.5% - probably a more accurate reflection of market conditions.

Rightmove also reported a burst of three-bedroom properties being put on the market in the week before the HIPs programme was extended to include three-bed properties, and suggested that this distortion could have been responsible for the increase in asking prices.

Rightmove Commercial Director Miles Shipside suggested that many sellers will need to adjust their expectations to changing market conditions, commenting that in recent weeks sellers have "been given an unmissable message that the market has changed and they need to price realistically."

FT House Price Index Shows Slowdown

The Financial Times has just published its most recent house price index, covering September. The index is made up of data from several sources and shows a slowdown in the annualised rate of house price growth from 9.4% in August to 8.8% in September.

Perhaps more interestingly, its monthly growth rate has halved since March - falling from 0.6% to 0.3% in September.

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