Lack Of New Properties Keeps House Prices Rising

Homebuyers will be disappointed to hear house prices will continue to rise throughout 2019, due to the lack of available or new properties coming on to the market.

Halifax’s House Price Index for December 2018 recently revealed not enough homes are being constructed to provide affordable housing for all those who need it and lower the value of existing properties.

Therefore, house prices will continue to rise this year, following a 1.3 per cent increase between December 2017 and December 2018.

This is low in comparison with previous years – with the annual house price growth between December 2016 and 2017 coming in at 2.7 per cent – as a result of political uncertainty in the country, coupled with the difficulty to raise deposits for homebuyers.

However, this figure would have been even lower had it not been for a lack of properties available to buy, pushing up the value of those on the market.

Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, made his predictions for 2019, estimating annual house price growth will be between two and four per cent this year.

“The shortage of homes for sale and continuing low levels of housebuilding both constrain the supply of houses, and in turn support high prices, which will continue to inhibit demand in 2019,” he stated.

However, this outlook could improve beyond this year, after the government has pledged a significant amount of funding to meet its housebuilding target of 300,000 new properties a year by the mid-2020s.

To do this, it has put aside £44 billion of financial support for housebuilding, as promised in its Autumn Budget 2017.

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