Series of measures confirm upward trend for UK house prices

Current or prospective landlords considering expanding their portfolios or entering the private rented sector for the first time will always have reason to take an interest in the latest UK house prices. Many presently holding a landlord rent guarantee policy with Advanced Rent (http://www.advancedrent.co.uk) will be intrigued to read that according to a series of measures from various sources, UK house prices remain firmly on the up.

Halifax, for example, one of the biggest mortgage lenders in the country, has said that the three months to November saw a 7.7 per cent rise in UK residential property prices compared to the year before, according to its most recent house price index. Not for six years has there been such a big annual price increase, with the last month alone seeing a 1.1 per cent rise, bringing the average price of a UK home to £174,910. Such rises could be attributed to a combination of increased demand and a shortage of homes for buyers to choose from, said housing economist Martin Ellis.

This latest trend for potential rent guarantee scheme policyholders was also in evidence in the most recent monthly property market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which found that during November, expectations for the future growth of UK house prices hit a more than 14 year high. Echoing the words of Mr Ellis, RICS said that there had been another fall in the number of homes coming onto the market, meaning insufficient supply to keep pace with rapidly increasing buyer demand. 59 per cent more chartered surveyors across the UK predicted a continuing upward movement in house prices rather than a downward trend over the coming three months, the highest reading since September 1999.

In other news that will be deeply unsurprising to holders of a landlords rent insurance policy in the English capital, another report has said that London property prices will continue outperforming the rest of the UK's next year, albeit with a more stabilised rate of growth. That was the verdict of estate agent Marsh & Parsons, which predicted a 5 per cent to 7 per cent increase in the city's house prices. Meanwhile, a longer-term view for the whole country was given by a revision of the Office for Budgetary Responsibility's (OBR) forecast for the next five years of house price growth, from 15 per cent to 27 per cent.

The independent fiscal body tipped 2013/14 to see rises of 3.7 per cent, followed by 5.8 per cent in 2014/15 and 7 per cent in 2015/16. The figures for 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 were 4.2 per cent, 3.7 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. Such sustained rises are expected to keep a greater proportion of the UK population renting for longer. This, in turn, suggests greater possibilities for those taking advantage of a rent factoring product from Advanced Rent (http://www.advancedrent.co.uk) to put them in a more secure position to expand their portfolio.

Editor’s Note: Advanced Rent (http://www.advancedrent.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.