House price rises slow to a crawl

House prices are rising at the slowest annual pace in five years, according to Britain’s biggest mortgage lender. Halifax said that its mortgage data showed that prices had risen by 1.8% in the year to February, the slowest pace since March 2013. In February last year prices were rising nearly three times as quickly, at 5.1%. House prices reached an average price of £224,353 last month. A separate report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has added to evidence of a subdued market, with its members reporting a fall in buyer enquiries and agreed sales. The average number of properties on estate agents’ books has hit a record low and is “unlikely to improve”, according to the RICS. While a typical estate agent has 42 homes on their books per branch, in London – where the nation’s chronic housing shortage is most concentrated – the figure is just 33. RICS’s monthly residential market survey, which gathers the views of more than 300 chartered surveyors across the country, also found that there was a prevailing trend in the lack of new buyer enquiries, new instructions and newly agreed sales. Click here for the full Telegraph article Click here for the full Independent article Click here for the full Times article (£)