Some good news for UK residential property owners. New figures just out show that British house prices increased 1.6% in August from July. This is the biggest increase since December 2006. The figures came from lender Nationwide.
‘Fewer second-hand properties have come onto the market than is normally the case in recessions, which has contributed to moving the balance of supply and demand more in favour of sellers over the course of 2009,’ said Nationwide’s chief economist Martin Gahbauer.
Mr Gahbauer said record-low interest rates had helped to support the British housing market. In March, the Bank of England slashed its key interest rate to 0.5% as it sought to soften the blow of deep recession. Rates have remained at that record low since then. Let’s hope the trend continues!
In general, client of ours who have purchased residential investment properties in the UK in recent years have had pretty good experiences letting their units. Price drops and poor demand for purchasers has been a painful reality but in the main, people have been able to keep their properties let. We need to remind ourselves that property as an asset class, has recently returned to being what it always was…. a long-term investment!!