According to the index, prices increased by 0.4% in April, continuing the slowdown in house price growth. Having said that, prices were up 23.6% over the past three months compared with a year earlier.
The Halifax said a number of factors were involved in the slowdown, such as more properties coming onto the market - 15% more than the same period last year - keeping prices down, and the decline in the number of first-time buyers. Plus, as many recent reports have suggested, the market has slowed much more in the south.
Commenting on this, Halifax chief economist, Martin Ellis, said many potential homebuyers could not afford to get on the property ladder: "More properties for sale and lower numbers of first-time buyers should cause house-price growth to continue to fall over the remainder of this year.
“Annual house price inflation is forecast to fall from its current rate of 23% to 9% at the end of the year. There will, however, be a marked north/south divide with the market slowing to a much greater extent in the south."
