Why the housing market could be turning a corner, how a quarter of buyers have tried to ‘bribe’ sellers to bag their perfect home, and more. Our roundup of what is happening in the world bricks and mortar.
February is a dreary month, isn’t it? New year motivations tend to slip (if they haven’t already) and blue skies and sunshine still feel a long way off. But there are rays of sunshine in the housing market, if this week’s cherry-picked selection of property news stories is any guide.
Prices of houses up on a year-on-year basis after a February surge
Nationwide is one of the most respected of the house price indices, since it’s based on the lending under way at one of the country’s biggest mortgage providers — and they’ve reported a 0.7% rise in the average house price in February. This brings the annual percentage change to 1.2%. It is the first rise in house prices recorded within a year.
The easing of concerns about interest rates in late 2023 and the accompanying lowering of the cost of borrowing has, as you would expect, sparked a flurry in activity. ‘The decline in borrowing costs around the turn of the year appears to have prompted an uptick in the housing market,’ says Nationwide’s…
