UK house prices rise at slowest pace since 2013

LONDON: British house prices rose at the slowest pace in more than six years in September, mortgage lender Halifax said on Monday in the latest sign of how Brexit is weighing on the housing market.

House prices rose 1.1% year-on-year after a 1.8% rise in August, Halifax said.

On the month, house prices fell 0.4%, after a 0.2% rise in August.

British house price growth has slowed since the Brexit referendum in 2016 – the Halifax index was showing growth of about 8% a year at the time – and prices have recently been falling in London and some neighbouring areas.

A survey last week from another mortgage lender, Nationwide, showed house price growth fell to an eight-month low in September.

“With the economy largely struggling and the outlook highly uncertain, we suspect that house prices will remain soft in the near term at least,” Howard Archer, chief economist adviser to the EY ITEM Club consultancy, said.

With little more than three weeks before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU, the future of Brexit remains uncertain. It could leave with a deal or without one, or not leave at all.

Indicators of the economy are now pointing to a protracted slowdown, and even the risk of a recession.