UK Jan house prices surge to 6-year high

[LONDON] UK house prices rose for a 13th month in January to their highest level in almost six years as the economy gained momentum, Nationwide Building Society said.

The average cost of a home advanced 0.7 per cent from December to £176,491 (S$372,280), the most since April 2008, the Swindon, England-based lender said in a report yesterday. That is more than the 0.6 per cent increase forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey. From a year earlier, prices climbed 8.8 per cent, the biggest annual increase since May 2010.

"The housing market is continuing to gather momentum on the back of further solid gains in employment, record-low mortgage rates and rising confidence," said Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide. "The pick-up in activity appears to be fairly broad-based."