Published on : Mon, 21 Nov 2005 16:04GMT
by : David Parker

UK house prices gained for a second month in November showing signs that confidence is returning to Britain's £3.5 trillion property market after a year’s slowdown, according to property Web site Rightmove. The data also shows that prices rose by 0.8 per cent over the last month, the biggest rise since April.

The average asking price for a home rose from 196,348 pounds to 197,855 pounds. This points to an annual rate of increase in house prices from 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent.
The average number of unsold properties on realtors’ books fell to 69 from 71 in the last survey.

Miles Shipside, the commercial director of Rightmove said: “This is the soft landing. `It's not obviously a return to a boom, but we've now stabilized.” Bank of England's interest rate cut to 4.5 percent in August is being considered one of the principal reasons for the upturn in house market.

Despite the pickup in the house market, Rightmove said there were variations in it. Some properties are overpriced, it felt. According to Rightmove, it is the "most unusual turnaround of the property market in the last 12 months”.

That this pickup may help consumer spending is growing. Unwillingness on part of shoppers to increase spending pushed the annual rate of economic growth in UK to a 12-year low, before BoE intervened and cut interest rates.

The average number of properties on offered for sale put up by a real estate agent fell to 69 from 71 and the average time taken for a property to sell is 79 days down from 81. As was also shown by Nationwide Building Society, U.K. house prices increased 1.3 percent in October, which is the fastest rate in 15 months.

Prices rose in eight out of 10 regions and declined in two. Greater London had the highest increase in house prices, where an average house costed 275,394 pounds and the increase was registered at 3.5 per cent.