House price growth hits double figures

In the year to April, prices rose by 10.9%, the first annual double-digit growth since April 2010 and the fastest rate since June 2007. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “After several months of moderation, the pace of house price growth picked up in April, with prices rising by 1.2% during the month.” Nationwide said the average UK house price now stood at £183,577. Prices in the capital are now about 20% higher than they were before the financial crisis of 2007-08, said Nationwide. But prices in the rest of the country are still around 2% lower than their pre-crisis peak. Meanwhile, Sir Jon Cunliffe, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, has warned that surging house prices pose the single biggest threat to UK financial stability. Sir Jon said that policymakers must decide quickly whether to take action to cool the market and argued that it would be “dangerous to ignore the momentum that has built up in the UK housing market.