“[Halifax’s data] supports other leading indicators which suggest that, against a backdrop of weak employment and still high mortgage rates, the prospect of tax rises in the budget on November 26 is weighing on buyer sentiment,” Ashley Webb, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said.
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Webb is less optimistic. He thinks the RICS survey points to house prices ending this year broadly flat, and “lingering fiscal concerns” mean the risk to his prediction of a 5 per cent increase in prices in 2026 is now “skewed to the downside”.