Spring selling season fails to materialise as house price growth stalls

By Isabelle Fraser

The annual rate of growth was 4.1pc in March, down 1.5pc from February CREDIT: PA

House prices slowed in March, according to official figures, as an increasing squeeze on consumers weighs on housing market activity.

The annual rate of growth was 4.1pc, down from 5.6pc in February, as the market stagnates due to a lack of supply.


Between those two months, the average house price across the country fell 0.6pc; this slump affected everywhere in the country except Wales and the West Midlands. In London, house prices fell 1.5pc in March alone.

House price growth around the country

Howard Archer at IHS Markit said that it added "to a mounting collection of weaker data and surveys which point to the housing market being increasingly affected by the deepening squeeze on consumers and their concerns over the outlook".

He said that these pressures would continue to intensify over the coming months and forecast house price will rise by just 2pc in 2017. Mr Archer added: "There is a very real and mounting possibility that it could come in lower than that."

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that in March the market was "subdued", and the traditionally strong spring selling season faltered as new buyer enquiries and agreed sales remained broadly unchanged since the start of the year.

It comes as the Bank of England reported that mortgage approvals for house purchases dipped to a six-month low in March. The average price of a home in the UK is now £215,848.

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, said: “These official figures suggest the slowdown is sharper and started earlier than first thought.

“April’s surprise election announcement applied a dab to the property market's brakes, but this data confirms it had already dropped down a gear in March.

“While the speed and severity of the fall in annual price growth – down to its lowest level for more than three years – will alarm some sellers, such national averages mask the wildly different conditions at opposite ends of the market."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/house-prices/spring-selling-season-fails-materialise-house-price-growth-stalls/