A survey by Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender showed on Friday that UK house prices fell 1 percent in July following Britain's vote to leave the EU. The average house price fell to £214,678. The decline was the third this year and largely offset a 1.2 percent increase in the previous month. However, prices were still 8.4 percent higher than a year ago.
In the three months to July, prices rose 1.6 percent from the previous quarter, up from growth of 1.1 percent for the three months to June but “comfortably lower” than earlier in the year, Halifax said. Data is in contrast to Nationwide's data a week ago which showed prices rising 0.5 percent in July.
On Thursday, the Bank of England cut interest rates and also suggested that house prices could fall. That said, the summer period is generally a slower time of year for residential property transactions. And month-on-month changes can be erratic and falls are often common within an upward trend.
“There are signs that house price growth is slowing with a deceleration in both the annual and quarterly rates of increase in the past few months. It remains too early to determine if there has been any impact on the housing market as a result of June’s EU referendum result,” said Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist.
