Prices were 0.3 per cent higher in the first quarter of this year compared to the preceding three-month period.
Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said the renewed activity in March followed a subdued start to the year.
“Casting our minds back 12 months, few could have predicted quite how well the housing market would ride out the impact of the pandemic so far, let alone post growth of more than £1,000 per month on average,” Mr Galley said.
“The continuation of government support measures has been key in boosting confidence in the housing market. The extended stamp duty holiday has put another spring in the step of home movers, while for those saving hard to buy their first home, the new mortgage guarantee scheme provides an alternative route on to the property ladder.”
Meanwhile, a separate services PMI rose sharply to 56.3 in March from 49.5 in February, the fastest rate of output expansion for seven months, while business optimism improved for the fifth month running and was the highest since December 2006.
“UK service providers were back in expansion mode in March as confidence in the roadmap for easing lockdown restrictions provided a strong uplift to new orders,” Tim Moore, economics director at IHS Markit said. Total business activity increased at the fastest rate since August 2020 and this return to growth ended a four-month sequence of decline. Forward bookings for consumer services and rising optimism about recovery prospects resulted in extra staff hiring across the service economy for the first time since the start of the pandemic.”
3/12/2021 8:01:13 AM GMT | By Dhwani Mehta
“Today’s GDP figures highlight the impact the pandemic continued to have on our economy at the start of the year as we tackled the new variant of the virus,” the UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said after the economy shrank 2.9% in January.
Additional quotes
“We will continue to protect jobs and businesses as long as this crisis lasts, we will be honest with people and put the public finances on a more sustainable path.”
“The vaccine rollout and his budget announced last week were reasons to be hopeful.”
Market reaction
Sunak’s comments fail to pacify the GBP bulls, as GBP/USD extends the drop towards 1.3900.