U.K. Nationwide House Price Index MoM (Jan) || Act: -0.6% Prev: -0.1% Fcst: -0.3%
"There are some encouraging signs that mortgage rates are normalising, but it is too early to tell whether activity in the housing market has started to recover," Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said.
"It will be hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term as economic headwinds are set to remain strong, with real earnings likely to fall further and the labour market widely projected to weaken as the economy shrinks," he added.
UK house prices fell more than expected and for a fifth consecutive month, marking the longest decline since the financial crisis as higher mortgage rates hit prospective buyers.
Property prices declined 0.6 per cent between December and January, the fifth time they have fallen since September, the mortgage provider Nationwide said on Wednesday, worse than the 0.3 per cent drop forecast in a Reuters poll.
Such a prolonged decrease had not happened in 14 years. The average price of a house dropped to £258,297, down from a peak of nearly £275,000 in August.
GBP
