UK house price betting odds: A bookmaker is taking bets house prices will fall this year – and London prices will fall fastest
Today's Halifax house price index may have suggested house price growth is speeding up – but one bookmaker is giving decent odds they'll actually fall this year.
Star Sports, which calls itself "the gentleman's bookmaker", is giving odds of 8/11 that house prices will fall in 2016 – against odds of 11/10 they'll rise.
The bookie reckons the chances of prices falling up to 4.99 per cent are 5/4, while the changes of them increasing more than 4.99 per cent are 13/8.
Meanwhile, the odds of them falling more than five per cent are 5/1 – although the chances of them increasing more than five per cent are only narrowly less likely, at 6/1.
“ Despite the optimism in a number of high profile house price predictions, we see a number of factors likely to impact on values this year," said Jamie Loughead, head of politics at Star Sports.
"Buy-to-let stamp duty, weakening overseas investor interest and a Bank of England interest rate rise will all help to drive prices down.
"We expect London prices to fall more quickly, as the market is so closely linked to global economic conditions – in fact, we’re so certain we’ve suspended all betting on property prices dropping in the capital.”
This morning figures from Halifax showed prices grew 9.7 per cent in January, up from 9.5 per cent in December.
