House prices are still ‘treading water’

The average price of a house in the UK was £160,256, 0.9 per cent lower than the same time the previous year and down 0.4 per cent on the previous month.

“Nationally, house prices continue to tread water, as measured by the underlying trend,” said housing economist Martin Ellis.

“Prices in the three months to August were fractionally lower compared with the previous three months. House prices fell by 0.4 per cent in August with declines in the past two months offsetting gains in the preceding two months. Overall, there has been little change in house prices so far this year with the UK average price in August at a similar level to the end of 2011.”

The price index has shown that there has been little overall change in prices over the first eight months of the year, however the industry-wide number of mortgages approved to finance house purchase picked up in July with a seven per cent increase, following a 13 per cent decrease the month before.