Commentary: Halifax House Price data beginning to show market slow-down

On today's release of Halifax's latest House Price Index:

Whilst showing a buoyant quarterly and annual rate of house price growth, today’s figures also suggest the first slip in monthly values since summer.

Over-optimistic sellers

Why? Because sellers have perhaps been rather too optimistic in their pricing having been buoyed by the hype of the stamp duty holiday.

Over the last few months, buyers had been happy to go that little bit higher to secure a property given the saving they were going to make. Unfortunately, many are starting to realise that completing in time to actually secure this saving is looking very unlikely.

As a result, they are now reigning in their spending and sellers are having to adjust to lower prices in order to secure a sale.

We've had a rise in enquiries too, with sellers contacting us in an attempt to sell their house fast after they've struggled to find a buyer on the open market.

Price renegotiations may start too

It's even beginning to look like many home buyers will be looking to renegotiate money off already-agreed purchases if they don't manage to complete before the stamp duty deadline comes into force. This will put even more downward pressure on prices.

As the vaccine rollout continues, this month's House Price Index may be our first glimpse of the current pandemic turning into the recession we've unfortunately been expecting.