On Wednesday, mortgage lender Nationwide data showed that, surprisingly, British house prices rose nearly 1% in October.
According to Nationwide, the rise was primarily attributed to a shortage of available homes rather than a market recovery impacted by increased borrowing costs.
The data further shows that new home prices rose by 0.9% from the previous month, marking the greatest monthly increase since August 2022.
Economists surveyed by Reuters in a poll had predicted a monthly decrease of 0.4% and a year-on-year drop of 4.8% in housing prices.
However, Tom Brown, Managing Director of Real Estate at Ingenious, said that “it’s essential to note that the situation is not uniform throughout the country and across all price ranges. When analysing opportunities, it is key to understand the underlying subsectors and regional dynamics.”
“Taking too broad a view of the market can be misleading. For instance, the institutional housing sector has experienced fewer disruptions compared to the residential sector due to its long-term investment horizon, rental growth, and substantial capital inflows,”, he added.