House price growth hits highest level for 14 months

February 10, 2020 by Heidi

House Prices

New figures released by the Nationwide Building Society show that the growth in house prices throughout the country hit its highest level in 14 months during January.

The Nationwide, which is one of the foremost mortgage providers in the UK, suggested that this was due to last December’s decisive general election result restoring housing market confidence after a prolonged period of Brexit-related worry. The figures published by the building society show that the average price of homes has risen by 1.9% compared to this time last year, having risen 1.4% during December.

The last time that the housing market enjoyed growth at this rate was November 2018 and it means that the average price of a home in the UK is currently £215,897. This is an increase of 0.5% on the December figure and amounts to £615 more per house.

The strong performance of the housing market during January follows a year in which the growth in prices never rose above 1%. It also comes in the wake of the news that banks in the UK signed off on more mortgages in December than they had in nearly half a decade. Speaking to the Guardian, Robert Gardner from the Nationwide said:

“Healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs appear to be offsetting the drag from the uncertain economic outlook.”

With the housing and mortgage markets picking up, prospective advisors will want to sign up for CeMAP training courses as soon as possible so they can get a slice of the action.