London house prices misrepresent overall trend

Posted: 31 Jul 2006 09:41:57 GMT

House prices in London continue to shore up a property market that is beginning to follow predictions of a comedown, research suggests.

A new study by Hometrack reveals that overall house prices rose by 0.6 per cent in July which takes the year on year growth to 3.2 per cent. However the strength of the London market is continuing to mislead the figures as property prices in the majority of the UK are not as buoyant.

In June there were price rises across 42 per cent of the country and this fell to 31 per cent in July. However if London and the south east are taken out of the equation the figure plummets to 19 per cent price rises.

Richard Donnel, director of research, stated: "The monthly Hometrack surveys continue to show that whilst there are concentrations of strong market activity and robust house price growth, the reality is that across two thirds of the country house prices remained unchanged.

"This is largely a result of continuing affordability pressures in the markets away from southern England which experienced rapid high price growth between 2002 and 2004."

It appears that although far from being a major slowdown the housing market is nearing the end of the much heralded mini-boom that it has been enjoying.




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