London house prices slide for first time in eight years
The capital city was the worst-performing market in the UK — and experts forecast a further decline in 2018
London — London was the worst-performing home market in the UK in 2017 for the first time in more than a decade and may be stuck there. Nationwide Building Society said values in the capital fell 0.5% — the first full-year decline since the 2009 recession — lagging behind a 2.6% increase nationally. It’s the first time since 2004 the city has ended the year as the slowest-growing region. The weakness may persist in 2018, with property website operator Rightmove and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicting price declines in the city. Nationally, values are expected to increase, although Nationwide forecasts only about 1% growth. That compares with a 4.5% rate recorded in 2016. In December alone, Nationwide said UK house prices rose 0.6% from November, to an average £211,156, though monthly figures can be volatile. Samuel Tombs, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the figures may be "tentative evidence" that a tax change late in 2017 has supported the market. ...
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