(Bloomberg) -- U.K. house prices declined in January as the market appeared to lose momentum following a stimulus-fueled surge last year.
Prices fell 0.3% from a month earlier, the biggest drop since April, to an average 251,968 pounds ($345,000), mortgage lender Halifax said Friday. Values rose 5.4% from a year ago.
Britain experienced a property boom in 2020, fueled by a temporary tax cut on housing transactions worth as much as 15,000 pounds to buyers. Halifax sees a slump of as much 5% in 2021 as unemployment rises and the tax holiday expires in March.
“Given the current time to completion across the market, transactions in the early part of 2021 probably don't include many borrowers who expect to benefit from the stamp duty reprieve,” said Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax. “How far and how deep any slowdown proves to be is a challenge to predict.”
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