UK house prices latest – Halifax House Price Index released

“However, affordability constraints and the lack of available properties continue to pose challenges for prospective homeowners,” she added. “Against the backdrop of lower mortgage rates and potential further base rate reductions, we anticipate house prices to continue a modest upward trend throughout the remainder of this year.”

Sam Mitchell, chief executive of estate agency Purplebricks, said the growing confidence in the housing market in recent weeks had been supercharged by the Bank of England’s interest rate cut.

“With lenders already slashing mortgage rates in response to last week’s decision, buyers are beginning to move ahead with purchasing decisions they have been putting off for months,” he noted.

“However, the rental market is still a complete mess, and there is a significant way to go before the outlook can be said to be as positive for prospective homeowners. The focus for the coming months must be lowering the barriers to homeownership for first-time buyers, which will only be achieved by Labour pushing forward with its plans to ‘get Britain building’.” 

Ryan Etchells, chief commercial officer at specialist lender Together, echoed the sentiment that the further rise in house prices reflects strong demand and market confidence, underpinned by the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates to 5% last week.