UK house prices have their biggest fall since February

UK house prices had their biggest fall in five months following Britain's decision to quit the European Union, although it's still too early to tell how much Brexit has dampened the market, said UK bank Halifax.

Prices dropped by 1 per cent in July, the biggest slide since February, reversing a 1.2 per cent gain in June, the mortgage lender said in a statement on Friday. Values were still up 1.6 per cent in the three months through July and were up 7.8 per cent from a year earlier, to an average £214,678.

The outlook for Britain’s property market is uncertain after Britons voted to leave the EU, even after low borrowing costs and strong demand helped to boost prices in recent years. The Bank of England cut its key interest rate to a record-low 0.25 per cent on Thursday and said both housing transactions and house price inflation “may decline further”.

"There are signs that house price growth is slowing," said Martin Ellis, an economist at Halifax. Still, monthly data can be erratic and "it remains too early to determine if there has been any impact on the housing market as a result of June's EU referendum result".

– (Bloomberg)