Monday, May 22, 2006
Category:
Property
According to the building society's House Price Report, prices increased by just 0.1 per cent in April, following a 1.1 per cent growth in March.
The average price of a home now stands at £163,573 and the yearly rate of growth is 4.8 per cent, a drop from 5.3 per cent last month.
"The cooling in prices in April was not unexpected given the surge in March and shows the wisdom of not placing too much emphasis on one month's set of numbers," commented Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's group economist.
"However, the underlying picture remains reasonably healthy as demand conditions have remained quite firm."
Ms Earley explained that despite the fall in mortgage approvals in February, from 121,000 to 115,000, this figure still remains higher than average, and she is not expecting a considerable decline in house price growth.
