The average UK house price was £226,000 in July this year, an £11,000 increase from the same month in 2016.
The region with the highest annual house price growth was the East Midlands, with a 7.5% increase, while the slowest annual growth was 2.8% in London, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Ged McPartlin of Ascend Properties said: “Annual house price growth of 5.1% is wholly promising. While we’re beginning to see a steady increase in price levels, we must also bear in mind the challenges the market has had to deal with, such as Brexit and the snap election.
“If we take these into consideration, the market has held up incredibly well. It’s also fantastic to see the number of first time buyers up by 5.1% annually.”
UK Finance data shows that lending is higher than last year, with first time buyers borrowing £5 billion on 30,400 mortgages in July 2017. The amount borrowed by first time buyers has increased 14% while the number of mortgages required by these new homeowners has seen an 8% rise.
Meanwhile, home movers borrowed £7.1 billion on 32,800 loans. This demonstrates a 15% increase in the total amount borrowed from 2016 and a 10% increase in the number of loans from 2016.
Remortgages during this period added up to £6.7 billion, a 12% increase from July 2016. The number of people remortgaging came to 36,800, a 10% rise from the previous year.
Brian Murphy from the Mortgage Advice Bureau said: “This report from UK Finance indicates that far from being distracted by their holiday plans in July, many homeowners decided to take the opportunity to review their finances, with the figures for remortgaging showing an increase both month on month and year on year in terms of both value and volume.”
