UK house prices fall again but market shows resilience-Halifax

LONDON (Reuters) -British house prices fell in July for the fourth time in a row in month-on-month terms but the market is showing some signs of resilience in the face of the climb in borrowing costs, mortgage lender Halifax said on Monday.

Prices fell by 0.3% from June and in year-on-year terms they were down by 2.4%, a slightly smaller drop than June’s 2.6% decline which was the largest such fall since June 2011.

Halifax said demand from first-time buyers was holding up with some of them searching for smaller homes to offset the Bank of England’s rise in borrowing costs to fight high inflation.

But the buy-to-let sector appeared to be under pressure, possibly pointing to more homes being put up for sale which could ease the long-standing shortage of properties on the market, a factor behind the high valuations.

Kim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, said house prices were likely to continue falling into next year.

“Based on our current economic assumptions, we anticipate that being a gradual rather than a precipitous decline, and one that is unlikely to fully reverse the house price growth recorded over recent years,” Kinnaird said.

Average prices are still about 45,000 pounds ($57,253.50) or +19% above pre-coronavirus levels, according to Halifax.

($1 = 0.7860 pounds)

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