Halifax: House prices fell in February

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Halifax: House prices fell in February

Thu 6th Mar 2008

The latest Halifax House Price Index has revealed that house prices fell by 0.3 per cent last month, after prices in the three months leading up to February were 0.2 per cent higher than in the previous quarter.

It found that the average price of a UK home now stands at £196,649, a rise of £4,390, or 4.2 per cent on the previous year.

Halifax predicts that house prices will remain stable during 2008, supported by high employment and low interest rates.

It cites that fact that the number of people in employment has risen by 296,000 over the past year to a record 29.40 million and it expects the Bank of England to cut interest rates at least another two times during 2008.

However, the bank did note that residential stamp duty revenue has more than doubled over the past five years to £6.4 billion in 2006-2007.

It found that the average homebuyer in 29 per cent of local authorities would need to set aside more than 20 per cent of the average full-time earnings for the area to pay the stamp duty bills associated with buying a new home.

Earlier this week the Council of Mortgage Lenders called for a reform of stamp duty, in order to promote buyer confidence in a struggling housing market and ensure that first-time buyers are not impeded by taxation.

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