UK’s biggest mortgage lender: house prices rise in January

The latest house price survey from Halifax has shown that average house prices rose by 1.9% in January, compared with December.

The move more than compensates for December’s monthly decline of 1.6%.

However, Halifax itself warned that analysts should not pay too much attention to figures from a single month – instead pointing towards the past three months, in which the average house price has fallen by 5.1%.

Halifax’s housing economist, Martin Ellis, said: “There are some very early signs that market activity may be stabilising, albeit at quite a low level.

“Nonetheless, continuing pressures on incomes, rising unemployment and the negative impact of the dislocation of the financial markets on the availability of mortgage finance are expected to mean that 2009 will be a difficult year for the housing market.”

Yesterday, the Bank of England cut its base rate to 1%, in a further move to encourage lenders to offer more loans and mortgages.

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Tags: mortgage, mortgages, halifax, mortgage lender, biggest mortgage lender

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