Off the wire
• China, EU should cooperate on 5G development: association  • Feature: Shopping at night in Mogadishu comes to live, thanks to retail chain  • Snow storm pelts across America, affecting 94 million people  • Marcelo, Robinho recalled to Brazil squad  • Update: Egyptian PM replaces interior chief, seven other ministers  • European Central Bank's refusal to resume financing to Greek banks does not cause problems: gov't sourc  • China strsses four major viewpoints on human rights  • Four sentenced to death for killing albino in Tanzania  • Tanzanian gov't sends relief supplies to flood victims  • New art work unveiled for fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square  
You are here: 　 Home

British house prices drop 0.3 pct in February

Xinhua, March 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The latest Halifax house price index released on Thursday showed that British house prices fell back by 0.3 percent month-on-month in February, the first drop since October last year.

Prices in the three months to February were 8.3 percent higher than in the same three months a year earlier. This was a little lower than January's annual increase of 8.5 percent and significantly below the peak of 10.2 percent in July 2014, according to the Halifax, a lender under Lloyds Banking Group.

British house prices were easing in recent months, but the underlying trend in prices is still strengthening, said Matthew Pointon, Property Economist of the Capital Economics.

"Record low mortgage rates and rising incomes start to tempt buyers back into the market," said Pointon.

Another factor likely to be supporting house prices was that the supply of both new and secondhand homes available for sale remains low, according to Martin Ellis, housing economist of Halifax.

"Supply remains tight despite house-building in England increasing for the second consecutive year in 2014 and a recent rise in the number of properties coming on to the market," said Ellis. Endit