Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments:
“The report issued by the Nationwide this morning is based on lending for house purchases at post survey approvals stage, so provides us with an excellent gauge of the UK housing market in March from one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders.
This morning’s data suggests that house prices have cooled slightly by 0.2% in March against February, yet overall annual growth is still positive at 2.1% year on year, indicating that the market is staying on a steady course. However, given that some areas of the country, such as Northern Ireland and Wales, are seeing more significant increases in prices, yet London is still seeing prices cool, one might suggest that the modest overall average masks a broad degree of variance across the regions, which rather underscores the effect that dipping London and South East values are having on the wider average. That there is still such a marked North-South divide in average house properties values is, of course, no surprise. However, market conditions in London and South East market would appear to be somewhat lacklustre when compared to other areas, proving that consumer confidence is still very strong outside of the Capital and its commuter belt, as underscored by the ongoing paucity of stock in these areas.”
