The UK housing market may slow next year, after a stellar 2021, with the end of the stamp duty holiday and the threat posed to the labor market by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Nationwide Building Society said Thursday.
The house price index climbed 10.4 percent year-on-year in December after a 10.0 percent increase in the previous month, the monthly survey results from the group showed.
Compared to the previous month, the HPI rose 1.0 percent following a 0.9 percent gain in November. Economists had forecast a 0.5 percent increase.
"2021 was the strongest calendar year for house price growth since 2006," Nationwide said.
The average price of a typical UK home hit a record high of GBP 254,822, rising nearly GBP 24,000 over the year, which was the largest rise in a single year in cash terms. Prices were 16 percent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.
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