UK house prices pick-up in July

LONDON Aug 2: The year-on-year rise in UK house prices accelerated in July, a major lender has said, with the cost of the average home at £217,010.

The Nationwide Building Society said that the annual growth in house prices rose from 2% in June to 2.5% in July.

However the lender said little had changed in terms of the fundamental balance between buyers and sellers.

The future performance of the economy, jobs, and the level of interest rates would be key to the market, it said.

House prices rose by 0.6% between June and July, the lender said.

The Nationwide, which bases the findings on its own mortgage data, said that it expected house prices to rise by 1% over the course of 2018.