The strong upward trend in British house prices continued in November with the price of the typical home rising 2pc from October, the Nationwide Building Society said this morning The monthly increase left prices up 25.5pc from a year earlier. This is the first time that annual house price growth has exceeded 25pc in more than 13 years Nationwide said the average UK house price is now STG115,761, up from STG113,665 in October
The November price increase represents a pick up in pace from October's 1.4pc month-on-month and 24pc year-on-year rates, indicating that housing demand is still rising. Bank of England policymakers voted to leave interest rates unchanged at 4.0pc last month due to concern that a rate reduction would over inflate the housing market "Despite recent comments suggesting a gloomy outlook for 2003, we expect the market to slow modestly in response to a deterioration in labour market conditions and some increase in mortgage rates,' said Alex Bannister, the group's chief economist He added that a fifth year of double-digit house price growth "cannot be ruled out" in 2003 //www.fxcentre.com