House prices continue to rise
News Category: Industry News
Published: 28-Jun-2007
New figures suggest that house prices in the UK continued to rise in June, despite some experts predicting that interest rate increases would start to check demand.
The latest figures from Nationwide how that the typical house in the UK increased in value by 1.1 percent in June. This means that the annual rate of house price inflation is now 11.1 per cent.
June's increase was the strongest since December 2006 and comes after a moderate increase of 0.5 per cent in May.
According to Nationwide, a typical house now costs £184,070 - £18,000 more than in the month last year.
Fionnuala Earley, chief economist at Nationwide, said that the strong growth would add weight to the predictions that the Bank of England would opt to increase interest rates again.
"The resilience of the housing market will be another component to add to the rate rise camp's argument," she explained.
"This news, together with the revelation that rates remained on hold by the narrowest of margins in June, will set the stage for a rate rise to move forward to July and for the risk of a rise to six per cent to increase significantly."
As house prices continue to rise, more people may have to continue to live in rental accommodation for longer.
