Number of homes for sale falls
04/06/2015
The number of houses for sale in the UK has fallen to its lowest level in many years, fuelling the UKs current housing crisis.
High street bank Halifax has released figures that shows the reduction of properties on the market, coupled with higher demand from buyers, has pushed up housing prices at a faster pace than wages are rising. Property prices have risen by 8.6% over the last 12 months, pushing the cost of the average home up to £196,067, data from Halifax has shown.
Nationwide, the UKs largest mortgage lender, recently released figures which showed that low investment rates have encouraged people to invest in property, with many investors having large funds and no need to borrow money to do this, leading to nearly 40% of homes being bought without a mortgage so far this year.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at the Halifax said:
"The imbalance between supply and demand is likely to continue to push up house prices over the coming months.
"Looking further ahead, the increasing level of house prices in relation to earnings is expected to dampen house price growth."
Jonathan Samuels, chief executive of Dragonfly Property Finance, said:
"Unless supply improves materially, it is hard to see how prices will not continue to rise throughout 2015, albeit at a more moderate pace relative to last year."
Many ideas have been suggested to combat the UKs housing crisis, such as tighter immigration controls and a cap on rent and property prices, similar to the one Berlin has introduced this week.
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