–Nationwide: UK Sep House Prices 0.1% m/m; +3.1% y/y
–Nationwide: Three Month Trend Turns Negative – First Time Since May09
LONDON (MNI) – UK house prices were broadly flat through September,
but the three month rate of change turned negative for the first time
since May 2009, according to the Nationwide house price survey.
The Nationwide survey showed September house prices up 0.1% on the
month and up 3.1% on the year, compared to up 3.9% on the year in
August.
The 3-month on 3-month change in prices turned sharply negative
after being flat in August, at -0.9% in September from unchanged in
August.
Nationwide’s Chief Economist Martin Gahbauer said the trend in
house prices was “consistent with the clear loosening of housing market
conditions observed over the summer months”.
UK house prices in the Nationwide series fell just over 19% from
peak to trough. They then saw their first monthly rise in March 2009,
and have risen in 14 of the sixteen months since then.
But there is growing evidence that fears over the impact of fiscal
austerity is preventing potential home buyers from entering the market
and creating an increasingly stark supply-demand imbalance.
Nationwide’s Gahbauer said that the latest data did not necessarily
point to a significant decline in property prices:
“Although the three month rate of change has turned negative, at
this stage it is not pointing to a significant pace of decline in
property values. During the 2008 downturn in house prices, the three
month rate of change dropped as low as -5.1%, well below the current
level of -0.9%. Nonetheless, buyers appear to have a slightly better
hand than sellers at the moment, as the market continues to absorb the
recent increase in property for sale.”
–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7491; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,MABDA$,MABDS$,MT$$$$]