UK Housing Market Improves As Retail Slumps

The U.K. housing market appears to be regaining some strength as home prices show signs of bottoming out, although slumping retail sales continue to raise concerns over the strength of the economic recovery, according to Financial Times. On Tuesday, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that home prices fell more slowly in February than the previous month, with the balance of surveyors reporting falling rather than rising prices moving lower to 26% in February from 31% previously. Additionally, the data showed that even among surveyors reporting price declines, the majority saw prices slip 2% or less.

The British Retail Consortium published data that dampened enthusiasm over the improvement in the housing market, with total retail sales adding 1.1% in February, which is largely attributed to the effect of the recent increase in the value-added tax. According to The Daily Telegraph, like-for-like sales dropped 0.4% from January, marking the weakest monthly performance since May 2009. Helen Dickinson of KPMG said the magnitude of the VAT’s effect on the data was unclear, but said that the data represented “a step in the wrong direction” for sales from the beginning of the year.

Click here to read the story from Financial Times.

Click here for additional coverage of retail sales from The Daily Telegraph.