House prices withstand uncertainty, Halifax says

House prices fell slightly in June but the annual trend strengthened, figures from Halifax showed.

Prices in June dipped 0.3% to an average of £237,110 after a rise of 0.4% in May, Britain's biggest mortgage lender said. For the three months to June prices rose 5.7% from a year earlier after rising 5.2% in the three months to May.

Halifax, owned by Lloyds Banking Group, said the 5.7% annual growth figure was affected by particularly low growth a year earlier. House prices were 2.4% higher in the three months to June than in the preceding three months.

The figures appear to show property prices holding up reasonably well amid political and economic uncertainty. But other surveys have been weaker, including rival lender Nationwide's figures, which showed an annual percentage rise of just 0.6%.

Russell Galley, Halifax's managing director, said: "Recent industry figures show demand looking slightly more stable, with mortgage approvals ticking along just above the long-term average."

But Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics said the Halifax figures made little sense.

"Halifax’s data remain implausibly strong and irreconcilable with all other measures of house price growth," Tombs said. "The housing market has little momentum, though a modest revival later this year is likely if lenders reduce mortgage rates in response to the recent fall in their funding costs."

The national picture masks regional differences, with prices falling in London and the South East and rising in Wales, Northern Ireland and other English regions, other surveys have shown.

Galley said: "One of the major restraining factors on the volume of transactions in the market continues to be the very low level of stock for sale. With the ongoing lack of clarity around Brexit, people will be looking for more certainty in the coming months, both to encourage them to list their property and to create the confidence needed to encourage buyers."