A series of reports issued within hours of each other suggest the market is at least slowing - but with some fear that it might be in more serious trouble.
Halifax says annual house price growth rate has now peaked at 10 per cent and will grow in future at a considerably slower pace.
Its latest figures - just one snapshot for one month based on the mortgage lender’s data, of course - shows a modest 0.6 per cent price rise on average across the UK in September. The price of the typical property rose to £187,188.
Prices in the three months to September were 2.7 per cent higher than in the preceding quarterbut the Halifax says this marked the second successive decline in the quarterly rate.
“The recent rapid rise in house prices in some parts of the UK, earnings growth that remains below consumer price inflation and the possibility of an interest rate rise over the coming months, appear to have tempered housing demand” says Martin Ellis, the Halifax’s chief economist and author of its house price index.
“A moderation in growth looks likely during the remainder of 2014 and into next year as supply and demand become increasingly better balanced.”
Meanwhile homeowner confidence in the continued growth of UK house prices has fallen to a 15-month low according to Zoopla.
Its latest Housing Market Sentiment Survey of 6,746 homeowners found the proportion expecting prices in their area to increase over the next six months has fallen from 92 per cent three months ago to 88 per cent now - still relatively high, but nonetheless the lowest figure it has recorded since July 2013.
Homeowners in the East of England are the most bullish with 91 per cent expecting values to increase over the next six months; by contrast the south west’s figure is down from 95 per cent earlier this year to 85 per cent today.
Following the implementation of stricter affordability criteria for borrowing, 39 per cent of those homeowners surveyed stated that they thought it was more difficult to get a mortgage now than it was three months ago.
“Market signals are harder to decipher at the moment than they were a few months ago. The coming months will be crucial to determine if the housing market recovery has stalled or simply paused for breath” says the portal’s spokesman Lawrence Hall.
And in its half-yearly World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund has stated that the Bank of England may need to raise interest rates if there are any signs that the UK’s housing market is developing into a bubble.
The IMF - which has long been sceptical of the sustainability of UK house price rises since the end of the downturn - says it has reservations over whether the Mortgage Market Review has done enough to restrict demand and stabilise house prices in the long term.
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