News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other artilces from the June / July 2003 issue RPI news archive

House prices still climbing - June / July 2003

An 'Iraq effect' has slowed the housing market, although the signs are that prices are continuing to climb, albeit at a slower rate than for most of last year.

The Nationwide reported house prices rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.3 per cent in May, putting the annual rate of increase at 21.3 per cent ­ down from 22.2 per cent in April. While house prices are rising, activity levels are falling with house sales 'down 7 per cent so far during 2003 compared to last year', it said.

The Nationwide, which puts the average price of a house at £124,752, is sticking by its forecast of house price increases of 10 per cent in 2003.

Its figures are not too dissimilar to those put out by HM Land Registry which put the average price of houses bought and sold between January and March this year at £145,897 ­ up 19.7 per cent on the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile Sainsbury's Bank has reported that the same number of people plan to move over the next six months as the last ­ which 'suggests that the housing market is not slowing down.

In fact in some areas more people are planning to move before August than last year ­ 8 per cent of homeowners in the North West, 7 per cent in the East Midlands and 7 per cent in Wales (all up 3 per cent), 9 per cent of homeowners in the West Midlands and East of England, and 7 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside (all up 2 per cent).

A less rosy picture has emerged from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors where 31 per cent more members reported house price falls than rises in the three months to April . However the RICS was 'encouraged to see a return to confidence in the market', said its housing spokesman Jeremy Leaf. 'We expect stable sales conditions to return this summer and have forecast an average 10 per cent rise in house prices in 2003. Broadly speaking the market still remains weak in ther south and strongest in the north but we have also recorded a marked increase in confidence in London'.

London, Oxford and Brighton are the most expensive cities for housing, with costs of £2,728, £2,170, and £1,822 per square foot respectively, according to Halifax Estate Agents. Of a list of 30 cities Birmingham is listed as 14th most expensive (at £1,014 per square foot), Newcastle as 20th (£924) and Manchester as 24th (£887). Hull was last (£627). Brighton, London, Bath, Belfast and Oxford were identified as the cities with the highest house price rises per square metre over the 10 years 1992 to 2002. The largest rises over the last year were recorded in Leicester and York (up 28 per cent), Birmingham and Nottingham (up 25 per cent), and Norwich (up 24 per cent).
 

other artilces from the June / July 2003 issue

• Victims of unfriendly fire
• Empty homes take over
• Little satisfaction in council complaints
• HB reform moves ahead
• HB reform moves ahead
• House prices still climbing
• Empire builder's charter
• Demand grows stronger
• In brief