08.01.202108:51:00UTC+00UK Halifax House Price Growth Weakens In December

UK house prices logged the slowest growth in the current sequence of increase that started in July, data released by the Lloyds Bank subsidiary Halifax and IHS Markit showed Friday.

House prices rose 0.2 percent from November, when prices were up 1 percent. This was the slowest increase since July.

In the fourth quarter, house prices increased 2.6 percent from the preceding three months. On a yearly basis, house prices advanced 6 percent after rising 7.6 percent in three months to November.

In the near-term, and with mortgage approvals still sitting at a 13-year high, there may be enough residual strength in the market to sustain prices up to the deadline for the stamp duty holiday and the scaling back of Help to Buy at the end of March, Russell Galley, managing director, Halifax, said.

"However, with the pace of the UK's economic recovery expected to be constrained by the renewed national lockdown, and unemployment widely predicted to rise in the coming months, downward pressure on house prices remains likely as we move through 2021," Galley added.