London Lags U.K. Housing Boom With Weakest Third-Quarter Growth

(Bloomberg) --

London house prices posted the worst performance in the U.K. in the third quarter, as the market continued to rebalance in the wake of the pandemic.

The annual change in prices in the three months through September was just 4.2% in the capital, less than a third of the growth seen in Northern Ireland and Wales, Nationwide Building Society, said Thursday. The U.K. average was 10.3%.

The reading continues a pattern that has been seen since the coronavirus hit, with buyers increasingly looking for more space after months of confinement in their homes. 

“Recent price patterns suggest an element of rebalancing is occurring where most of the regions that have seen the strongest price growth are those in which affordability is still close to or below the long run average,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist. 

In September alone, U.K. house prices almost flatlined, with a 0.1% increase from the previous month.

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