Of the 12 eurozone members Halifax analysed, UK property prices have risen by 90 per cent since 2001 compared with a 40 per cent increase in the eurozone as a whole over the same period. Spain was the only country with higher house price growth, with an increase of 100 per cent.
Over the past year, Belgium proved to have the largest house price rises at 18 per cent, followed by France at 15 per cent and Spain at 14 per cent. The UK came fourth with an increase of 13 per cent.
While Spain showed faster house price growth since 2001 than the UK, property prices remained lower. The average price in Spain at the end of 2006 was £150,200 compared to 187,100 in the UK. Outside the eurozone, UK prices outperformed Australia, Canada and the United States.
Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax, said: “UK house price growth has slowed in the past couple of years compared with the likes of Belgium and France, which have seen bigger increases. Two of the largest economies surveyed, the US and Germany, are the only ones to have seen a fall in prices.”
Andy Frankish, managing director for Mortgage Talk, commented: “It’s dangerous to take house prices just on a yearly basis; five years is better. People really need to be looking at 10 years to see how good an investment property is. But it wouldn’t surprise me if house prices did balance off, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
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