House prices up 1.8% in February

The annual rate of house price inflation remained unchanged at 9.9% for the third successive month, but on a quarterly basis the rate of house price growth has more than halved. Prices rose 2.3% in the past quarter, following 4.7% growth in the previous three months. Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, says a shortage of new and second-hand properties available for sale has continued to push house prices up so far in 2007. He adds: “However, there are signs emerging that the increase in interest rates since last summer is dampening housing demand but this is yet to feed through t...