"The debate about house prices is reignited on Mondayamid claims by Britain's biggest property website that prices for homes have come "off the boil".
For the first time this year, the asking prices posted on the Rightmove website for homes in London fell by 0.5% in early June, compared with the month before, in part due to a rapid increase in sellers rushing to cash in on rising prices.
In some areas, especially in London, prices may have hit an "affordability cap", the website said.
Rightmove added that asking prices have "come off the boil" and prices in England and Wales are at a virtual standstill, rising by just 0.1% – or £272 – on the previous month.
On a year-on-year basis, though, prices in London are up 14.5% on a year ago, even after the slide in asking prices put on sale by estate agents compared to the month before.
Even so Rightmove said the findings will come as a relief to the Bank of England ahead of the meeting of its policymaking body, the financial policy committee (FPC) this week.
The rapid rise in house prices has been the subject of much debate, particularly since last week when chancellor George Osborne said he would give the FPC new powers to impose caps on the amounts banks and other lenders hand out for home loans compared with customers' incomes or the value of their property.
While the FPC is not expected to use such powers immediately, the chancellor announced his intention to give the Bank of England additional scope over lending, just as the governor Mark Carney was warning interest rates could begin to rise from their historic low of 0.5% earlier than expected."
Fonte: Ver notícia completa em The Guardian - www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/16/london-house-prices-off-boil-analysts
