The housing market ended the year with prices rising, despite the twin shocks of the foot-and-mouth crisis and 11 September.
Building society Nationwide said that 2001 saw the strongest year of price growth since 1988, with the price of an average UK property rising by 13.8%. House sales were 14% higher than the previous year, while remortgaging in November was estimated to be 30% higher than the previous year.
Halifax said house price inflation rose from 3-4% at the beginning of the year to over 15% in December.
Alex Bannister, Nationwide’s group economist for finance and planning, said the reasons for the rises were the lowest unemployment since 1975, the lowest mortgage rates since the 1950s and the fastest growth in real take home pay since 1988.
