LONDON: British house prices in May were 3.5% higher than a year earlier, monthly data from mortgage lender Nationwide showed on Monday, after an unexpected 0.5% monthly increase largely reversed a fall in April.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.1% monthly increase and a 2.9% annual increase.
The seasonally adjusted monthly increase was the largest since December, while the annual gain was the second-smallest since October, after April’s 3.4% rise.
British property sales surged in March as buyers sought to complete transactions before the end of a partial exemption on purchase taxes, before falling sharply in April, according to government figures.
However, Nationwide said demand appeared to have recovered in May.
“Despite wider economic uncertainties in the global economy, underlying conditions for potential home buyers in the UK remain supportive,” Nationwide’s chief economist, Robert Gardner, said.
Low unemployment, wages rising faster than inflation and the prospect of some further Bank of England interest rate cuts were all acting as a boost to the property market, he said.
