UK house prices fell for a fourth straight month in July as a further rise in mortgage rates curtailed how much buyers could afford, according to Halifax.
The average value of a home declined 0.3% following a 0.1% fall in June, the mortgage lender said in a statement Monday. It left prices 2.4% lower than a year earlier, a slower rate of decline than the 2.6% posted a month earlier.
The findings echo those of rival lender Nationwide Building Society, whose own survey last week showed prices falling 3.8% from a year earlier — the most since 2009. Together, they show how 14 consecutive interest-rate increases from the Bank of England to tame inflation is straining the finances of consumers already struggling with higher food and energy bills.
According to Halifax, prices have fallen 3% since they peaked in August last year following a pandemic-induced boom. Nationwide puts the decline over the same period at 4.5%.
“The continued affordability squeeze will mean constrained market activity persists, and we expect house prices to continue to fall into next year,” said Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages. “Based on our current economic assumptions, we anticipate that being a gradual rather than a precipitous decline. While there have been recent signs of borrowing costs stabilising or even falling, they will likely remain much higher than homeowners have become used to over the last decade.”
Prices have avoided the collapse that appeared possible last autumn, when then-Prime Minister Liz Truss’s ill-fated budget sent borrowing costs soaring. In November, Nationwide warned of a potential 30% drop in prices in a worst-case scenario.
That resilience partly reflects a robust labor market, strong earnings growth and a shortage of homes for sale. Mortgage approvals in June were the strongest since October, according to the BOE.
