Insurance News Archive
Property insurance holders see prices rise 5.9% in 2009
Posted by Jonathan Walker
Property insurance policyholders have seen house prices rise by 5.9 per cent over the past year, according to new figures.
Nationwide's index shows that values rose by 0.4 per cent this month, although the future outlook for property insurance policyholders remains uncertain.
The average price currently stands at £162,103 million which is 5.9 per cent higher than it was at the end of 2008.
"Although house prices are still 12.2 per cent lower than their October 2007 cyclical peak, they have now rebounded by an impressive 8.9 per cent since their February 2009 trough," said Martin Gahbauer, chief economist at Nationwide.
He suggested that pent-up demand in the housing market was responsible for the rise in prices over the year, as well as record lows in interest rates.
Recent figures from the British Bankers' Association showed that lending for house purchase rose from 42,552 in October to 44,713 last month.
November's figure represents a 152.3 per cent increase year-on-year.
31 Dec 2009
