House prices, BHS, motor insurance and spending

House prices moved up a gear in February, according to Nationwide, with property values increasing by 4.5 per cent in a year. The BBC reports on the building society’s latest house price index which also reveals that property prices were up by 0.6 per cent compared with the previous month, bringing the cost of the average home to £205,846. Both the monthly and annual rise are greater than in January, but the Nationwide does not expect house prices to rocket. It is forecasting a 2 per cent rise in UK house prices over the course of 2017. Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, said: ‘It’s fast becoming less a battle of wills than a battle of nerves – the uneasy standoff between cautious buyers and sellers who know they have less competition than usual. The acute lack of supply is steadily nudging up average prices, but pragmatic vendors have long since grasped that this is anything but a seller’s market.