Tag Archives: UK Property Prices

UK house prices are likely to reverse recent gains as the economy struggles to recover from recession, former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower said.

‘The reality is that the real economy is on its back,’ Prof Blanchflower said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London yesterday. ‘If house prices continue to fall, as I believe they will, we’re going to see around three million people in negative equity’, where mortgage debts exceed the value of the property.

UK gross domestic product unexpectedly dropped in the third quarter, extending the recession to the longest since records began in 1955. Recent house price gains and a recovery in stock markets may be a bubble, Prof Blanchflower said.

‘We need to somehow or other get that economy moving again,’ said Prof Blanchflower, a Dartmouth College professor who left the Monetary Policy Committee in May. ‘The worry going forward is what are you going to do about all these folks who are in negative equity?’ Continue reading →

The property website said London led October’s gains

Asking prices for homes in England and Wales rose on an annual basis for the first in more than a year in October, property website Rightmove said yesterday, buoyed by a dearth of properties coming onto the market.

Asking prices rose 0.2 per cent on the year – the first annual rise since June 2008 – taking them to an average £230,184.

On the month, asking prices rose 2.8 per cent, the biggest increase since February 2008 and the largest for a month of October in six years, Rightmove said.

Other recent surveys have also shown house prices are rising again on a monthly basis, but the trend has mostly been driven by a lack of supply as homeowners prefer to sit out the downturn rather than accept a lower price for their property. Continue reading →