The Halifax have revealed figures showing that UK house prices fell by 1 per cent in June, the largest monthly fall since January.
The figures put the average price of a house or flat at £218,390.
House prices fell for the third consecutive month, which hasn’t happened since November 2012.
Over the quarter, which represents an aggregate of the previous three months, house prices fell by 0.1 per cent.
When looked at annually, house price growth has slowed down from 3.3 per cent in May to 2.6 per cent in June, and is growing at the slowest rate for four years.
It is believed that one cause of this slowdown is the increased pressure placed on households as incomes lag behind inflation.
“Although employment levels continue to rise, household finances face increasing pressure as consumer prices grow faster than wages,” said Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist.
“This, combined with the new stamp duty on buy-to-let and second homes in 2016, appears to have weakened housing demand in recent months.”
One economist said he did not expect a continuing fall in prices over the rest of the year.
“The dip in Halifax’s measure of house prices – which dragged year-over-year growth down to its lowest rate since May 2013 – probably doesn’t mark the start of a sustained fall in prices,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
“The index is volatile even at the best of times, and Nationwide reported a 1.1% month-to-month rise in its similar measure of prices in June. The underlying trend in prices probably is flat.”
