U.K. Housing-Market Confidence Falls as Economic Outlook Weakens

Britons’ confidence in the housing market fell in June compared with three months earlier as the outlook for the economy worsened, according to Halifax.

A gauge of the outlook for property prices slipped to 15 from 19 in March, the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc said in a report in London today. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed expect prices to rise in the coming 12 months, while 19 percent forecast a decline.

Britain’s economy shrank for a third straight quarter in the three months through June, according to an estimate from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. The Bank of England restarted bond purchases this month to aid the economy and said the near-term outlook had “weakened.”

The decline in housing confidence reflects “increased uncertainty regarding the economic outlook,” said Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax. He forecast “little change in prices and sales over the remainder of the year provided that the U.K.’s economic outlook does not deteriorate significantly.”

Halifax’s monthly house-price report on July 5 showed that values increased 1 percent in June from the previous month. That compares with Hometrack Ltd., which said that prices stagnated, and Nationwide Building Society, which recorded a 0.6 percent drop.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O’Brien in London at fobrien@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net