House prices in the UK have recorded their first annual rise since October 2010, rising by 1.3% in January compared with a year earlier, Halifax has said. They did however, note that property values were 0.2% down on December.
The “signs of improvement” in the market, which started in late 2012, continued into the new year, the lender said.
They added that the outlook for prices was somewhat unclear.
In the three months to January prices were 1.9% higher than in the previous three months, with the price of the average home valued at £162,932.
The figures, based on the Halifax’s own lending data, suggested that prices had picked up slightly more year-on-year than figures from the Nationwide Building Society. The figures from the two lenders often differ to some extent however.