Landlord and BTL Blog: Sept sees slower property price growth

Friday, September 30, 2016

Sept sees slower property price growth

The Nationwide House Price Index for September 2016 has been published.

House prices increased by 0.3% in September
Annual house price growth slowed to 5.3%, from 5.6% in August

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist, comments:

“The pace of annual house price growth slowed to 5.3% in September, from 5.6% in August, though it remained within the narrow range of 3% to 6% that has prevailed since early 2015.

The relative stability in the rate of house price growth suggests that the softening in housing demand evident in recent months has been broadly matched on the supply side of the market. Survey data indicates that, while new buyer enquiries have remained fairly subdued, the number of homes on the market has remained close to all-time lows, in part due to low rates of construction activity (discussed in more detail opposite).

Regional price trends were also little changed. Regions in the south east of England continued to record the strongest gains even though price growth slowed noticeably in the Outer Metropolitan region (from 12.4% in Q2 to 9.6% in Q3) and in London (from 9.9% in Q2 to 7.1% in Q3).

“House price growth remained subdued in Scotland (+2%) and Northern Ireland (+2.4%) and small price declines were recorded in Wales (-0.5%) and the North of England (-0.2%), all relative to Q3 last year (see page 3 for more commentary on regional house price trends). "

Housing supply

“The number of new homes built in England has picked up, but is still not sufficient to keep up with the expected increase in the population. In the four quarters to Q2 2016, 139,000 new houses were completed, 30% higher than the low point seen in 2010. However, this is still around 15% below the average rate of building in the five years before the financial crisis and 38% below the 225,000 new households projected to form each year over the coming decade."