House price growth falls to 14-month low
UK house annual price growth fell to 4.3 per cent in January, down from a year-on-year growth of 4.5 per cent in December.
As compared to the month before, house price growth edged up 0.2 per cent, according to figures from Nationwide. But it is thought that overall this year the housing market will be cooler than it was in 2016, and some experts have predicted growth could slow to three per cent.
Soft Jan #Nationwide data (up 0.2% m/m, 14-month low of 4.3% y/y) fuels our suspicion #UK #house price gains will be limited to 3% over 2017
— Howard Archer (@HowardArcherUK) February 1, 2017
"The outlook for the housing market remains clouded, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding economic prospects more broadly," said Nationwide economist Robert Gardner.
Read more: Inflation hits 1.6 per cent: Experts react to increase
Consumer spending is already being squeezed after inflation rose to 1.6 per cent in December – the biggest price rise in two years. The figure is expected to rise to three per cent this year.
Jeremy Leaf, former Rics residential chairman, said: "Although these figures are quite encouraging bearing in mind they reflect activity in the quieter period for the property market leading up to Christmas, they are also quite historic as they record what happened over the past two or three months.
"What we found at the coalface during that time was a little bit more optimism in the market in terms of sentiment but sadly still not enough supply and not the quantity of buyers that we saw in the early to middle part of last year."