British house prices rose for a fifth month running to turn flat on the year in September, the Nationwide Building Society said today, in a further sign the housing market is stabilising.
The mortgage lender said house prices rose 0.9 per cent in September, slightly better than economists' forecasts of a 0.7 per cent increase after August's 1.4 percent rise - a downward revision from last month's 1.6 per cent estimate.
This left prices unchanged on the year - the first time since March 2008 that prices have not declined on a year-on-year basis.
The average price of a British home is now £161,816.
"The further increase in house prices is very much consistent with improvements in a broad range of economic and financial indicators over the last few months," said Nationwide chief economist Martin Gahbauer.
House prices have been supported in recent months by a lack of homes coming onto the market, alongside a tentative pick-up in interest from buyers.
Mr Gahbauer said that high unemployment and restrictive credit conditions meant it was unlikely house prices would continue to increase at the strong rate seen in recent months.
"One reason to remain cautious about the outlook for house prices it that turnover in the market is still well below normal levels," he said. "At the current rate of increase it would take another 18 months for it to reach pre-downturn levels."
Reuters