A day after a series of announcements suggested the housing market was improving, figures from the Office for National Statistics show prices cooling.
The annual rate of house price inflation fell to 7.2 per cent in February, dropping from the 8.4 per cent recorded in January, and the lowest rate for more than a year.
However, in the short term, between January and February, prices rose by 0.6 per cent on a seasonally-adjusted basis. The average home across the UK is now £268,000, the ONS reported.
Actions taken by the Financial Policy Committee to dampen the growth of last year have done their job and put the housing market on a more stable footing for the short term at least says Peter Williams, executive director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association.
However, in part the slowdown has only been possible by squeezing potential buyers out of the market by restricting access to finance, creating some extra breathing space for politicians to get to grips with the fundamental supply/demand imbalance he says.
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