Houses for sale ‘at lowest for years’
9th June 2015

The number of houses for sale in the UK has reached its lowest level for many years, according to the Halifax House Price Index published this week, but house prices continued to rise steadily as demand continues to outstrip supply.
Despite house prices edging down by 0.1% since April, the overall trend was an 8.6% annual increase in the quarter to May, or 2% on the previous quarter.

Halifax Housing Economist Martin Ellis added: “Housing supply remains extremely tight with the number of properties available for sale currently at its lowest level for many years. At the same time, ongoing economic recovery, increasing employment, real earnings growth and very low mortgage rates are all supporting housing demand.”

However, because his combination has kept house price inflation well above earnings growth, he forecasts that it may push up house prices in the coming months but it cannot go on that way: “looking further ahead, the increasing level of housing prices in relation to earnings is expected to dampen house price growth.”

The Halifax also published its Housing Market Confidence Tracker which concluded that the proportion of people believing the coming year will be a good time to buy increased, while those believing it will be a good time to sell decreased.