UK house price growth slows in last three months as property market cools

The pace of house price growth slowed sharply in the last three months of 2014, according to Nationwide Building Society, although prices ended the year 8.3% higher than in the same period of 2013.
In more evidence of the rapidly cooling property market, three regions of the UK – north-west England, Yorkshire and Humberside, and Wales – recorded price declines in the final quarter of the year.
Across the UK, average prices edged up 0.2% in December and 1.1% in the quarter, taking the average price to £189,002. In London the typical home changed hands for £406,730, up 2.5% on the quarter and up 17.8% over 12 months. Prices in the capital are now 35% above their former peak in 2007.
Among large towns and cities, St Albans recorded the highest increase in prices, up by 24% over the year to an average of £494,777, closely followed by a 19% rise in Reading and a 17% rise in Belfast.
The Northern Ireland capital recorded a dramatic boom and bust in its property market during the neighbouring Republic’s Celtic Tiger years but it is now showing signs of recovery, albeit from a low base.
However, several cities in the UK recorded zero or very low house price growth over the year. In Manchester prices failed to rise over the year, while in Leicester the rise was 3% and in Liverpool it was 5%.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/30/uk-house-price-growth-slows-last-three-months-property-market-cools?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2