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LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - British house prices increased
last month at the fastest annual rate for five years, helped by
finance minister Rishi Sunak's extension of tax cut for buyers,
mortgage lender Halifax said on Monday.
House prices rose by 8.2% in annual terms in April, Halifax
said, the biggest gain since April 2016 and following a 6.5%
increase in March.
In April alone, house prices rose by 1.4% - the biggest
monthly jump in seven months.
Britain's housing market has boomed since the lifting of a
first coronavirus lockdown in the spring of 2020 and was given
further impetus by Sunak's announcement on March 3 that he was
extending the cut in stamp duty land tax for buyers.
The first 500,000 pounds ($703,200) of any property purchase
in England or Northern Ireland will remain exempt from stamp
duty until the end of June, and there will be a 250,000 pound
tax-free allowance until the end of September.
Sunak also announced a new government mortgage guarantee
scheme to ease deposit constraints for prospective home-buyers.
Last week the Bank of England reported a record increase in
the value of mortgage lending during March, while mortgage
lender Nationwide said house prices jumped by 2.1% in April,
their biggest monthly rise in more than 17 years.
"We do expect recent levels of activity to be sustained over
the short-term as buyers continue to search for homes with more
space and potentially better suited for their new working
patterns," Halifax managing director Russell Galley said.
However, he stuck to his view that house price growth was
likely to fade later this year because of the potential for
higher unemployment once Britain's job-protecting furlough
programme ends.
($1 = 0.7110 pounds)
(Reporting by Andy Bruce
Editing by William Schomberg)