12 September, 2017
United Kingdom house prices are holding steady, according to official house price data released on Tuesday.
House prices have gone up by 3.1% to £150,846 over the last 12 months in Wales, by 4.8% to £149,185 in Scotland and by 4.4% to £128,650 in Northern Ireland.
This represented a £11,000 ($14,600) increase on the same month a year ago and a £2,000 increase on June, the Office for National Statistics said.
The average Yorkshire house jumped from £151,000 in July last year to £158,000 in the same month this year - a 4.6% rise.
The annual growth rate has slowed since mid-2016 but has remained broadly around 5% during 2017. House prices were also up by 1.1% month-on-month in July.
It is the eight consecutive month in a row that London house prices have risen at a slower pace than the United Kingdom average, after the rate of growth across the United Kingdom rose by 5 per cent in the year to July, unchanged from June, to reach an average price to £226,000.
Prices in the United Kingdom capital rose by 2.8 per cent in the year to July to reach an average price of £489,000. "Looking ahead, we expect house prices to rise only slowly over the next year as inflation continues to exceed wage growth, Brexit risk makes some households reluctant to make long-term financial commitments and as lenders' financing costs rise when the Term Funding Scheme is closed in February 2018".
The average price edged up to £223,257 in June to £226,185 in July.
The lowest annual growth was recorded in City of London, where prices fell by 18.4% to stand at £744,000 typically.
He said: "The rate of growth during this period is higher than previously reported by Halifax and Nationwide, which is impressive given that this price data usually lags slightly behind other industry sources that base their figures on mortgage approvals rather than sales completions".
Thomas Fisher, an economist at PwC, said: "Factoring in continued pressure on household incomes in the second half of the year, we anticipate a likely weakening in United Kingdom house price inflation to around 4% on average for 2017".
