Commentary by Ruban Selvanayagam

• According to the latest UK House Price Index, average house prices saw an annual price rise of 1.1% (to February 2019);
• The latest Hometrack UK Cities House Price Index reported that Nottingham saw the greatest year-on-year house price growth at 4.1%.  This was followed by Leicester (3.9%), Manchester (3.4%), Edinburgh (3.2%), Leeds (3.1%) and Liverpool (2.6%);
• It’s worth noting that, due to the 2/3 month time lag, both the HM Land Registry / ONS and Hometrack datasets have not taken into account the impacts of COVID-19;
• The most recent Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report stated that with estate agents required to close due to the coronavirus, near term expectations have fallen dramatically; house prices rose in the three months to March, but the outlook has turned negative and rents are expected to fall in the coming months (although longer-term sentiment is more resilient).
• It comes as little surprise that investing money on the side in areas like property is likely to remain on back burner until there’s more clarity on where the economy stands after the health crisis is over.