- Stephen Noakes, mortgages director at Halifax
Britain's house property declined for the first time in three months in March, while the general trend is still strongly bullish. According to a report from the Halifax, the nation's housing prices eased 1.1% from February, when they climbed 2.5%. The company also said that monthly figures are highly volatile and it is better to pay attention to the annual readings, however, according to the latest figures, values jumped 2.3% during the final quarter of 2013.
A record rainfall hampered people's willingness to make huge purchases, as the number of mortgage approvals fell in February. The underlying property market is still strong, as January's approvals soared to the highest since November 2007 and even a slight drop still points at the improving conditions.
The latest developments in the property market raised concerns about the creation of another bubble. Moreover, the government incentives are aimed at easing credit conditions and only heating up the market. George Osborne, however, claimed his schemes are not pushing up house values in the country. During a speech on parliament's Treasury Select Committee, he said there is no evidence the Help to Buy programme is fuelling the price bubble. In contrast, several leading housing market researchers reported on stronger demand in all regions that was triggered after the introduction of the programme.
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