Nationwide: Housing’s ‘green shoots’ of recovery

The housing market is showing ‘green shoots’ of recovery but will remain subdued for the rest of this year, according to Nationwide.

The building society predicted yesterday that prices will fall by 4.5 per cent in 2023 and return to growth again next year but only by 0.7 per cent.

Nationwide’s chief finance officer Chris Rhodes said activity in the housing market – which was hit by the disastrous mini-Budget in the autumn – was still a fifth lower than where it was last summer.

But he added: ‘I think it’s fair to say there’s some early shoots of positivity with volumes returning and house price stability.’

Nationwide’s GDP outlook remains gloomy, predicting that the economy will suffer a ‘modest recession’ and shrink by 1.1 per cent this year.

Nationwide’s most recent monthly house price figures have shown what it described as ‘tentative signs of recovery’ in the market.

They showed prices rose by 0.5 per cent during the month of April but that they were still 2.7 per cent lower on the same month a year before.

Its latest comments come after David Miles, a senior economist at Britain’s Budget watchdog, said the age of ‘massive’ house price rises could soon be over.

Miles, a forecaster at the Office for Budget Responsibility and a professor at Imperial College, said the rampant increases seen over the past 40 years could be ‘nearing an end’ thanks to slowing population growth, the rise in working from home and higher interest rates.