UK house prices grow faster than expected in April: Halifax

[LONDON] British house prices grew faster than forecast in April, boosted by low mortgage rates and strong economic growth, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Friday.

House prices rose 1.6 per cent in April from March, compared with a forecast for a rise of 0.4 per cent in a Reuters poll. Prices had risen by 0.6 per cent in March, compared with an earlier estimate of 0.4 per cent, Halifax said.

Prices in the three months to April were 8.5 per cent higher than they were a year earlier, compared with an increase of 8.1 per cent in the three months to March and below a peak of more than 10 per cent in mid-2014, Halifax said.

REUTERS