UK house prices rise in February

U.K. house prices have risen for the first time in four months following the descion by the Bank of England cut interest rates.

The average house price is now £ 237,856 and represented a rise of 3.2 percent. In London values have increased by 0.9 percent.

The capital now has an average asking price of £402,233 and gains of 3.5 percent where seen in Hammersmith and Fulham, and Wandsworth

As a result of the interest rate drops homeowners are now keen to sell. Although this is a slow road to recovering the outlook is seemingly positive with nine out of ten regions in the South East have shown rises.

The Bank of England Governor Mervyn King revealed that further drops are to be expected due to slowed economic growth and even tougher lending standards.

King said that in forecasting several years ahead “there’s no reason to expect house prices to be markedly above where they are now” and that “it’s quite possible there may be some fall in house prices.”

According to the RICS the UK housing slump was the worst since 1992, though the website Rightmove has indicated that although they perceive there to be a slowdown, it is only relative.

This is a view also shared by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling who aid that “the housing market has had a slowdown but this is against a background of growing by 10 percent a year and as the economy starts to grow again then the housing market will recover and will grow as well.”

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