UK house prices rose at the fastest annual pace in 10 months in January, according to the latest survey from Nationwide.
The average price of a home reached £211,756 last month, with property values up 0.6 percent on the month before. The annual growth rate jumped to its highest rate since March 2017, hitting 3.2 percent after a rate of 2.6 percent the month before.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, the figures were “a little surprising” especially “given signs of softening in the household sector in recent months.”
“Retail sales were relatively soft over the Christmas period, as were key measures of consumer confidence, as the squeeze on household incomes continued to take its toll”, he said.
Economists had said that they expected slow house price growth this year, with mainstream forecasters expecting prices to rise between 1 and 4 percent.