House price growth subdued in June - Nationwide

House price growth in the UK remained subdued in June as Brexit uncertainty continued to weigh, according to the latest survey from Nationwide.

House prices were up just 0.1% on the month, which was an improvement on the 0.2% decline seen in May but a touch below consensus forecasts of 0.2% growth.

On the year, house price growth eased to 0.5% in June from 0.6% in May, in line with consensus.

Nationwide's chief economist , Robert Gardner, said: "Survey data suggests that new buyer enquiries and consumer confidence have remained subdued in recent months. Nevertheless, indicators of housing market activity, such as the number of mortgages approved for house purchase, have remained broadly stable.

"Housing market trends are likely to continue to mirror developments in the broader economy. While healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs will provide underlying support, uncertainty is likely to continue to act as a drag on sentiment and activity, with price growth and transaction levels remaining close to current levels over the coming months."

Prices in London fell for the eighth quarter in a row, although the annual pace of decline moderated to 0.7% from 3.8% in the previous quarter. Nationwide said prices in the capital are still only about 5% lower than the all-time highs seen in the first quarter of 2017 and 50% above their 2007 levels.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "Prices likely will continue to flatline in Q3, given that Rightmove reported that asking prices were unchanged year-over-year in June. Nonetheless, households’ disposable incomes are rising at a solid pace this year, largely thanks to the recent pick-up in wage growth.

"In addition, the recent fall in banks' wholesale funding costs- for instance, the 5-year LIBOR swap rate has fallen by 30bp over the last two months- should at least partially feed through to mortgage rates in Q3, improving affordability further.

"Meanwhile, the stability of mortgage lending this year has demonstrated that households are fairly relaxed about the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, even if in reality it would be very damaging for house prices. So provided a no-deal Brexit is avoided, we still expect year-over-year growth in house prices to recover to about 1.5% by the end of this year."