UK house prices edge down in June, Halifax says

LONDON (Reuters) - British house prices fell slightly in June but are likely to rise over the rest of this year and into 2025 with interest rates expected to start falling soon, mortgage lender Halifax said on Friday.

Property prices fell by 0.2% last month from May and over the 12 months to June they rose by 1.6%, Halifax said.

"This continued stability in house prices – rising by just +0.4% so far this year – reflects a market that remains subdued, though overall activity has been recovering," Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said.

"For now it's the shortage of available properties, rather than demand from buyers, that continues to underpin higher prices."

Britain's Labour Party, which was on course for a landslide win in Thursday's parliamentary election, has promised to speed up home-building by reforming the country's planning system.

Halifax said house prices in London rose by 0.9% over the 12 months to June while Northern Ireland saw the fastest regional price growth, up 4.0% from a year earlier.

Rival mortgage lender Nationwide said on Monday that its measure of house prices showed a small gain of 0.2% in June from May and was 1.5% higher than in June last year.

Britain's housing market boomed during the coronavirus pandemic but it slowed after the Bank of England pushed interest rates to their highest since 2008 last year.

Investors see a 55% chance of the BoE cutting rates for the first time in more than four years on Aug. 1.

(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)