Monday, September 29, 2008

UK House Prices continue to fall as Outlook looks Worse

UK Housing prices have further to fall and the sector continues to contract, according to Bank of England data today. The FT reports that the number of mortgages for new house purchases in August fell to a record low of 32,000 while re-mortgaging activity has also slowed sharply. The number of new house purchases is well below the 49,000 monthly average of the previous six months. The number of remortgages slowed to 64,000 in August, lower than the 69,000 rate in July and well below the six month average of 88,000 per month.

“The rate of growth in lending to the household sector also slowed in August, with a rise of £1.9bn, equal to a one month growth rate of 0.2 per cent. Over the past 12 months, lending to the household sector rose by 7.5 per cent, against a 12 month growth rate of 8.7 per cent in May. Loans to the private non-financial sector also declined. Loans fell by £1.8bn, a growth rate for August of -0.7 per cent. for the 12 months, lending to that sector declined by 2.8 per cent.”

This helped to drag the Pounds to Euros Exchange rate back below 1.2600 and the pound exchange rate outlook is sub 1.2400 just when we thought we were going to test the 1.3000 level.

Bye for Now

Forex Trading Reports

No comments: