UK: housing market confidence falls

Britons’ confidence in the housing market fell in June compared with three months earlier as the outlook for the economy worsened, according to the Halifax. A gauge of the outlook for property prices slipped to 15 from 19 in March, the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group said in a report in London on Thursday. Thirty-four per cent of those surveyed expect prices to rise in the coming 12 months, while 19 per cent forecast a decline. Britain’s economy shrank for a third straight quarter in the three months through June, according to an estimate from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. The Bank of England restarted bond purchases this month to aid the economy and said the near-term outlook had “weakened.” The decline in housing confidence reflects “increased uncertainty regarding the economic outlook,” said Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax. He forecast “little change in prices and sales over the remainder of the year provided that the UK’s economic outlook does not deteriorate significantly.” Halifax’s monthly house-price report on July 5 showed that values increased one per cent in June from the previous month. That compares with Hometrack, which said that prices stagnated, and Nationwide Building Society, which recorded a 0.6 per cent drop.