Cracks appear in UK housing market as home prices fall for first time in 9 months

Key Points
  • U.K. house prices fell for the first time in nine months in December, as the country’s Budget and higher mortgage rates dampened a recent flurry of homebuyer activity.
  • Average property prices dipped 0.2% between November and December — the first monthly drop since March — fresh data from lender Halifax showed Tuesday.
  • Tom Bill, head of U.K. residential research at Knight Frank, told CNBC that wobbles had begun to emerge in the housing market after the government’s Oct. 30 Budget.

LONDON — U.K. house prices fell for the first time in nine months in December, as the country’s Budget and higher mortgage rates dampened a recent flurry of homebuyer activity.

Average property prices dipped 0.2% between November and December — the first monthly drop since March — fresh data from lender Halifax showed Tuesday. That was below the 0.4% price rise forecast by economists polled by Reuters.

It means the average property value in the country fell slightly to £297,166 ($372,560).

House prices rose 3.3% on the year in December, but annual price growth was also down from 4.7% in November and below the 4.2% predicted by economists.

Shares of U.K. homebuilders Taylor WimpeyPersimmonBellway and Barratt Redrow all fell following the data release Tuesday morning.

U.K. house prices rose at a steady clip in 2024, increasing for five consecutive months following a brief spell of stagnation as sentiment picked up on the back of the U.K. election and the start of the Bank of England’s rate cutting cycle.

However, a cooling of interest rate expectations — including on the back of the government’s tax-and-spend Budget, which pushed up U.K. borrowing costs — put pressure on transactions toward the tail end of the year.

Read More / Source : CNBC