We seem to be experiencing a period of extremely mixed signals in the property market at the moment.
While Nationwide reported an unexpected and extremely welcome rise in house prices last week, not three days later Halifax released figures that indicated we were far from out of the woods. Data from Nationwide showed house prices as rising 0.9 percent in March where as the Halifax’s data is a direct contradiction of that indicating a 1.9 percent drop over the exact same period.
Apparently the fact that each index uses a different sample of properties has caused the disparity in the figures. Due to the sharp fall we have experienced over the past twelve months, small differences can cause huge effect on the figures.
Perhaps the most sensible comment I have come across this week comes from Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, he says “We may have seen the end to continual and significant price falls but I don’t think we are quite at the bottom, for the rest of the year I think we will see alternating months of growth and falls.”
That seems quite likely and though it is true that it is far too early for predictions of rebound prices, only the most deeply pessimistic of financial commentators are predicting that prices will continue to fall as sharply as they have been.
Are we in the middle of recovery? Probably not just yet. But is there cause for cautious optimism? Yeah I think there is.
