Halifax House Price Index showed healthy Summer buying season – UK election did not kill off the housing rally. Mortgage approvals more important to BoE but also showing a positive trend towards pre-COVID levels. Likely already “in the price” when it comes to UK bank spreads but most important for NWIDE, LLOYDS and SANUK.

• Prices rose 0.3% in August, bringing the annual rate up to +4.3%, the highest since Nov-22. A minor positive in isolation but has to be viewed in the context of the Summer being the peak UK house buying season.
• More importantly, as referenced by HFX themselves, are the mortgage approval figures (which we believe the BoE watches more closely) which ticked up again in July and are now broadly in line with pre-COVID activity levels.
• HFX references anticipation of lower rates helping activity levels further (no surprise) but the key takeaway is that the Summer buying season did not “fail” which some had seen as a pre-election fear.