UK house prices climb to £ 20,000 to new high, Halifax reports Business News

Home prices have jumped 8.2% in the past year to a new record high, according to Halifax.

The lender said an average sale price of £ 258,204 in April, up 1.4% from the previous month. Almost £ 20,000 has been added to the average cost of a house since April 2020.

Halifax said prices were increased by buyers who had accumulated savings during the foreclosure by taking advantage of tax relief on property purchases and more government grants for people with a small deposit. The lender expects the pace of house price growth to slow down later in the year.

Russell Galley, Managing Director of Halifax, said: “The stamp duty holiday continues to provide momentum in an extremely active market, amplifying the current shortage of available housing as buyers seek to take advantage of the government program.

“The influence of the stamp duty holiday will gradually fade over the next few months as it wanes, but low inventory levels, low interest rates and continued demand will likely continue to support prices on the market.

“However, we expect recent activity levels to hold up over the near term as buyers continue to seek homes with more space and potentially better suited to their new ways of working.

He added: “The savings accumulated over the months of foreclosure have given some buyers even more money to invest in their dream properties, while the new mortgage guarantee system may have eased deposit constraints. for some potential buyers who previously thought they were taking their first step in the market. the housing ladder was in a few years.

The stamp duty holiday, which applies in England and Northern Ireland, was extended in March.

In April, a government-backed mortgage scheme prompted a number of major lenders to launch deals for people with a 5% deposit.

Tomer Aboody, director of mortgage lender MT Finance, said: “A combination of market confidence and growing optimism over the rollout of the vaccine is likely to strengthen the economy at least in the short term.”

Jeremy Leaf, North London real estate agent and former residential chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), said: “These record figures not only reflect what has happened in the property market in recent months, but build confidence in the longer-term sustainability of the recovery.

“In particular, the increase in the number of potential new buyers that we have seen in the field who are unlikely to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday that has caused so many previous moves, as well as buyers using the savings that ‘they were able to accumulate during the lockdown.

“The limited supply and faster deployment of vaccines is boosting activity and putting upward pressure on prices. Values ​​may soften as the stamp duty reduction begins and the holiday ends, but the pace is likely to slow rather than prices change dramatically. “