Like it or not, UK house prices appear to be rallying

The UK housing market seems to be perking up. But that may not be a good thing, says John Stepek.

UK house prices are back on the rise
(Image credit: Photograph (c) Ian Forsyth/Bloomberg)

In January, house prices across the UK rose by 1.9%, according to the latest Nationwide data. That doesn’t sound like much, and it’s still well below inflation. But it’s up from 1.4% in December, and as Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, points out, that followed on from “12 successive months in which annual price growth had been below 1%”.

It also chimes with data from other surveys, including the most recent reading from the Office for National Statistics, which suggests that even before the election, prices were starting to pick up across the country.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.