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Home owners in the UK still perceive that the value of their home increased in September but at the slowest rate for eight months, the latest property market sentiment index shows. Some 26.7% of the 1,500 households surveyed across the UK for the Knight Frank and Markit Economics index said that the value of their home had risen over the last month, while 5.5% reported a fall giving the HPSI a reading of 60.6, the eighteenth consecutive month that the reading has been above 50. However, the reading was down on the 61.8 achieved in July and was the fourth consecutive month that households’ perceptions about house price growth have moderated. Households in all 11 regions covered by the index reported that prices rose in September, with those living in London perceiving that the value of their home had risen at the strongest rate at 67.7, followed by households in the South East at 67.5 and the East of England at 64.4. The future HPSI, which measures what households think will happen to the value of their property over the next year, fell in September to 69.2, its lowest level since August 2013 and well below its peak of 75.1 in May. Expectations for price growth weakened in ten of the 11 regions covered by the index, with households in Wales the only ones more confident of future price rises than the previous month. In London expectations fell to a seventeen month low. Some 5.7% of UK households said they planned to buy a property in the next 12 months. This is down from 5.9% in August. Looking at the figures on a regional basis reveals that 9.3% of households in Yorkshire and the Humber plan to purchase a property in the next year, compared to just 3.4% in Scotland. Men are more likely to be considering buying a home in the short term, with 6% of such respondents saying they planned to purchase a home within the next 12 months compared to 5.4% of female respondents. House prices are rising across the UK, but our index signals a continuing slow-down in the pace of growth. The index started to ease in June and the trend is continuing. Some 46% of respondents expect the price of their home to rise over the next year, the first time this proportion has been under 50% this year,’ said Gráinne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank. ‘The strengthening economy, job creation and low base rates are helping underpin property values, but there are signs that households across the board are becoming more circumspect about the scale of price growth they expect,’ she added. According to Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Markit, these figures continue to lead other indicators and point to ongoing evidence of a cooling in the UK housing market. ‘With the index tracking property price expectations easing to a 13 month low in September, expectations weakened across all regions with the exception of Wales,’ he said. ‘The prospect of… Continue reading →

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