UK house price growth weakest since Nov 2015: Nationwide

[LONDON] Annual house price inflation fell to its weakest level since November 2015 last month, and the outlook remains clouded due to uncertain economic prospects, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Wednesday.

Nationwide said house prices rose 0.2 per cent in January, slowing from a 0.8 per cent jump in December, to leave prices 4.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, down from an annual increase of 4.5 per cent the month before.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected house prices to be flat in January, but for growth to slow fractionally less on an annual basis to 4.4 per cent. "The outlook for the housing market remains clouded, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding economic prospects more broadly," Nationwide economist Robert Gardner said, pointing to pressure on households from rising consumer price inflation.

REUTERS