Mortgage Advice Bureau : Nationwide House Price Index January 2019

Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau comments:

'The report released by the Nationwide this morning indicates that annualised house price growth softened and prices cooled month on month in December. This is generally a quieter period for the housing market, as most would-be vendors and applicants are focused on preparing for the festive season, therefore a slight softening in prices is quite normal and reflects usual seasonal activity.

The softer year on year average growth figure of 0.5% is within market expectations for 2018, however one might suggest that this masks the better performance of some regions, such as Scotland, Yorkshire and the Humber, the Midlands and East Anglia, where significant growth has been reported for most of 2018, and consumer confidence has remained resilient for much of the year. This more nuanced picture obviously isn't reflected in the headline figures, but as the current political and economic uncertainty continues, could well continue to be the case until such times as more clarity is available.'