Housing market showing signs of life
The UK's "moribund" housing market defied a spluttering economy and stirred briefly into life in November, although experts quashed hopes of a sustained revival in bricks and mortar.
Nationwide's index showed prices up 0.4% over the month and 1.6% ahead of a year ago in a "surprisingly resilient" performance, which took the average price of a home to £165,798.
But the lender's chief economist Robert Gardner dampened the mood with warnings that the market was likely to be flat at best during next year.
"With the UK economic recovery expected to remain sluggish well into 2012, house price growth is likely to remain soft, with prices moving sideways or drifting modestly lower over the next 12 months." Chancellor George Osborne has revealed a £400 million housing boost and more help for first-time buyers to tackle the mortgage drought which has blighted the market and shut out frustrated buyers lacking big deposits.
The Bank of England said mortgage approvals for house purchase rose to 52,743 in October, the highest for nearly two years.
But Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: "The monthly ups and downs in the lending figures do nothing to change the broader picture of a moribund housing market."
