London - UK
house prices recorded their first quarterly decline in more than four years,
adding to signs that the property market is cooling.
In the three months to April, prices fell 0.2 percent
compared with the previous three months, lender Halifax said in a report on Monday. In April
alone, prices slipped 0.1 percent, meaning they haven’t risen for the past four
months.
Almost every UK
gauge is now pointing to a housing slowdown. Annual growth based on data from
Nationwide Building Society is at the weakest in almost four years, while gains
in asking prices for homes have also lost momentum.
Mortgage approvals fell to a six-month low in March,
according to the Bank of England. Halifax said that in the three months through
April, prices rose 3.8 percent compared with a year earlier, less than half the
10 percent rate reached in early 2016.
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Huge gains in house prices in recent years, a time of weak
wage growth have pushed home ownership out of reach for many, which Halifax
says has curbed demand. Still, with shortage of supply also an issue in the UK
market, that’s providing some support to prices.
“Signs of a decline in the pace of job creation, and the
beginnings of a squeeze on households’ finances as a result of increasing
inflation, may also be constraining the demand,” said Halifax housing economist
Martin Ellis.