Housing market set to stay strong

Posted: 05 Sep 2007 11:17:29 GMT

House price growth continued in August and the market looks set to remain strong.

House price growth continued in August and the market looks set to remain strong.

That is according to the latest Halifax House Price Index which puts inflation at 0.4 per cent for the month.

Although this is down on July's 0.8 per cent figure, Halifax says that the UK housing market is not set to crash.

"Sound economic fundamentals, high levels of employment and a shortage in the number of properties available for sale will… continue to support house prices," commented Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax.

Annual inflation continued to increase at a strong rate, growing from 11.2 per cent in July to 11.4 per cent in August.

Halifax predicts that house price inflation will ease throughout the rest of 2007 but this may not be a bad thing for homeowners.

Miles Shipside from Rightmove recently told the Times that a slowdown of inflation may be "healthy" for the market as it increases affordability, allowing new buyers to get onto the property ladder and preventing the market from going stale.

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