LONDON (Reuters) -British house prices rose slightly faster than expected last month, increasing 0.5% in September after a 0.1% drop in August, major mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society said
UK House Prices See Slight Increase in September, Nationwide Reports
Overview of UK House Price Trends
LONDON (Reuters) -British house prices rose slightly faster than expected last month, increasing 0.5% in September after a 0.1% drop in August, major mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society said on Wednesday.
Monthly and Annual Price Changes
House prices in September were 2.2% higher than a year earlier, up from an annual increase of 2.1% in August and well below the rates of both average wage growth and consumer price inflation.
Regional Variations in House Prices
Economists polled by Reuters had on average forecast a 0.2% monthly rise in house prices and a 1.8% annual increase.
Economic Factors Influencing the Market
Nationwide said the annual pace of house price growth and transaction volumes appeared to have stabilised after rising faster earlier this year as buyers sought to take advantage of the final months of a tax break on some home purchases.
"Unemployment is low, earnings are rising at a healthy pace, household balance sheets are strong and borrowing costs are likely to moderate a little further," Nationwide Chief Economist Robert Gardner said.
House prices in the third quarter of this year rose fastest in Northern Ireland and northern England - up 9.6% and 5.1% respectively compared with a year earlier - while they rose just 0.6% in London and 0.3% elsewhere in southeast England.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Sarah Young)
