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U.K. Households Believe Home Prices Rose in Last Month

Sentiment is positive despite uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote

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Tower Bridge in London.

George Rose / Getty Images
Tower Bridge in London.
George Rose / Getty Images

Households across the U.K. believe that the value of their homes rose over the last month and many expect them to keep on rising despite uncertainty surrounding the Brexit "yes" vote.

January’s Knight Frank and IHS Markit monthly house price sentiment index (HPSI) marked the sixth consecutive month of positive sentiment following a post-referendum low in July.

More:London is Favorite Destination of Ultra Wealthy Home Buyers

Some 17% of 1,500 households surveyed across the U.K. said that the value of their home had risen over the last month, while 5.3% said that prices had fallen. This resulted in a HPSI reading of 55.8. Any mark above 50 is considered positive.

This, however, represented a slight fall compared with the 56.1 recorded in December, though it remains above the post-referendum low of 48.3 in July.


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The future HPSI, meanwhile, which measures what households think will happen to the value of their property over the next year, rose in January to 65.5, up from 62.3 in December.

This was the highest reading since before the U.K.’s referendum on EU membership, although it remains below its peak of 75.1 in May 2014.

More:Homeowners in Southeast London See Greatest Post-Crisis Wins

"The continued rise in the future sentiment index indicates that households are not focusing solely on the uncertainty around the path to Brexit," said Gráinne Gilmore, head of U.K. residential research at Knight Frank.

"The economic fundamentals in the U.K. are relatively strong, with the country expecting to have experienced the strongest growth in GDP of any country in the G7 for 2016," she said. "The International Monetary Fund has also revised up its forecasts for economic growth in 2017."