UK house prices rise faster than expected in May: Halifax

[LONDON] British house prices rose more strongly than forecast last month, rebounding from a dip in April caused by a new tax on rental property, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Tuesday.

Halifax said house prices rose by 0.6 per cent in May, twice the rate forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and largely reversing a 0.8 per cent dip in April.

Prices in the three months to May were 9.2 per cent up on a year earlier, the same rate of increase as in April, though quarterly price growth slowed to 1.4 per cent, its weakest since the three months to November.

"The strength of demand, combined with very low supply, is causing house prices to rise at a brisk pace," Halifax housing economist Martin Ellis said.

REUTERS