UK house prices reach the weakest annual pace since June 2013, according to data from mortgage provider Nationwide…
House prices across the UK saw a slight increase in August, rising by 3.2 per cent year-on-year according to the latest survey from Nationwide.
The figures are the weakest annual pace seen since June 2013 and mark a slight slowdown from July.
Month on month prices increase by 0.3 per cent in August compared with 0.4 per cent the month before.
The Nationwide house price index showed the average house value in August was £195,279. The Nationwide said the reason why house price inflation had weakened was a rapid growth in prices this time last year.
Chief Economist Robert Gardner said: “This month’s data provides further evidence that annual house price growth may be stabilising close to the pace of earnings growth, which has historically been around 4 per cent.
“Clearly house price trends are determined by a wide range of factors, but labour market developments are amongst the most important.”
He added in order to keep houses affordable new home construction needed to increase pace.
The figures released by Nationwide differ significantly from rival mortgage provider Halifax. Last month, the organisation reported house prices across the UK were rising 7.9 per cent a year and said it expected growth to continue.
This disparity is due to a difference in the way the two firms record their results. This includes a different emphasis on property sizes, to account for more small or large properties being sold in any one month.