House prices hit a high but growth slows

House prices jumped to a record high last month but the larger picture is still of a slowing property market, according to the UK’s biggest mortgage lender. Halifax said prices rose by 1.5% last month compared with February. This exceeded the 0.2% figure that economists had been expecting and was the biggest rise since August. It helped to push the average price of a house in the UK up to £227,871, the highest yet, according to Halifax data. Prices in the three months ending March were 2.7% higher than in the same period last year, edging up from the 1.8% annual growth recorded in the three months to February according to the Telegraph. Of more concern, said the Independent, is that the number of approvals is low by historical standards, and falling, despite the lender arguing that a competitive mortgage market has made for home loans that are at their most affordable in a decade. The Guardian adds that the role of the London housing market in the growth increase was not clear, because Halifax will not release a regional breakdown of the data until later this week. Click here for the full Times article (£) Click here for the full Telegraph article Click here for the full Guardian article Click here for the full Independent article