UK house prices continue to build

November saw UK property prices rise yet again for the fifth consecutive month.

The latest information from the Halifax, a major UK mortgages lender, is that property prices climbed 1.4% during the month of November. UK properties are now priced at just over 1.5% than the same time last year and are up over 4% since the beginning of 2009.

Martin Ells, an economist with the Halifax, believes the increases seen over the last few months are in reponse to higher demand mainly down to first time buyers taking advantage of the stamp duty holiday (coming to an end on the last day of the year) and affordability improvement for existing mortgage payers.

Demand has outstripped suppy largely this year with the result of edging prices higher and depending on how the UK economy develops during the next several months, if considerably more properties are put up for sale, prices should steady or could even drop slightly.