The most recent report by Nationwide Building Society has revealed that the price of houses is beginning to stabilise. According to the report, July showed an increase in the cost of houses across the UK, as it rose by 0.2% reaching £168,731. This means the current house prices are only 0.4% lower than last year.

However, although this is promising, the number of house sales that have been completed successfully is still more than 50% less than the number before the recession. Matt Hutchinson of spareroom.co.uk says “Property transactions are at severely low levels due to the disconnect between buyers and sellers. Properties are not selling because what buyers are prepared to pay falls well short of what sellers are willing, or able, to accept.”
It is thought that these opposing statistics are a depiction of the uncertain condition of the economy.  The chief economist at Nationwide stated “House prices remain relatively high compared to incomes and, together with more demanding deposit requirements, this is dissuading, or at least delaying, some first-time buyers from entering the market.”
Figures released by the Bank of England show that in June there was a rise in the number of mortgage applications being successful. The figures showed that 48,421 mortgages were approved which in higher than the average number of successful applications over the six months prior to June. Additionally, there was also a rise in the number of successful re-mortgage applications however; the number was still lower than the average of the six months previous

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About The Author

Lee Murphy

MAAT and ICPA accountant, with a passion for making accountancy and bookkeeping accessible. Other interests include cloud-based software development for web and mobile access, keeping fit, reading, and entrepreneurship.

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