Page 15 - Lucy Pendleton News Today

The UK blue chip index falls as UK consumer price inflation jumps to 5.1% and US markets head south

Sales normally drop off later in the year but remain ‘buoyant’

The Suez Canal will hike the fees it charges ships passing through the waterway, putting a further strain on prices amid a supply crunch.

House prices grew 10.6 per cent in the year to August across the UK, according to the ONS, but Scotland saw prices rocket 16.9%

The average UK house price jumped by around £4,400 between August and September, or 1.7 per cent, marking the fastest growth since February 2007, figures by mortgage lender Halifax show.

Nationwide said a 20 per cent deposit on a typical first-time buyer home is now around 113 per cent of their typical before tax income.

There was a significant 4.5 per cent jump in prices between May and June, which the ONS attributed to the tapering down of the stamp duty tax break.

Britains blue-chip index closed nearly 12 points lower, or 0.16%, at 7,169 on Wednesday

The first clues are emerging about what might happen to the housing market after the tapering down of the stamp duty holiday and how the race to beat the deadline pulled sales forward. After a frantic final leg for agents, mortgage brokers, banks, conveyancers and, of course, buyers and sellers, a leading estate agent has revealed that exchanges dropped to 40 per cent of the five year average in the first week after the cut-off. According to Knight Frank, the number of exchanges dropped to less...

House prices soared by 10.9 per cent annually in May, marking the strongest growth in nearly seven years, according to the Nationwide house price index.