The House of Commons today has published key economic indicators for the UK housing market and it makes for some interesting reading! Between April 2019 and April 2020 house prices (as measured by the UK House Price Index) increased by 2.6%. On a “seasonally adjusted basis” however, they have fallen by 0.9%.
It also depends where you are and Wales saw and average increase of 5%, whereas the North East saw a drop of 2.3%.
Something we are more interested in (as it is a bell-weather for the entire economy in our opinion) is there were 34,260 houses on which building began in England in Q4 2019 and this is an 11% decline compared to the previous quarter. Basically, if house builders are not building, the joiners, brickies, plasterers, electricians etc are not earning income which can then be passed through to the “real” economy! Good news though, the number of house build completions was up 3% when compared to the same quarter of 2018!
All the above will impact our clients investments and the exposure we have to both the UK and shares generally – get in touch with your local experts and build your own Financial Fortress!