News

UK house prices are higher than ever before according to new data released by Nationwide.

According to reports in the Guardian newspaper the average residential property is now worth £186,512 approximately £500 higher than the pre-recession peak recorded in October 2007. The country’s biggest building society recorded increases in the 13 months leading up to May 2014.

Some commentators have called for an increase in interest rates to dampen further rises or a reduction in the investment the government has committed to the Help to Buy scheme which requires just 5% deposit from the purchaser.

Simon Ashdown, director at LPC Living the housebuilder owned by the Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust, suggested a more appropriate approach is for housebuilders to increase the rate of construction to ease the current issues where a lack of supply is pushing up prices.

He said “Accelerating the number of homes being built would not only create countless employment opportunities, it would also help ease the issue of prices being driven to unsustainable levels and potentially out of the reach of first-time buyers”.

“While we are a niche developer we are building at our fastest rate since before the property crash with more than 600 homes in the pipeline in areas as diverse as Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Greater London”.