THE housing market continued to show signs of recovering during December but price growth for 2005 was the lowest for 10 years, latest figures show.
Britain's biggest mortgage lender said UK house prices rose by 1% during the final
month of the year, in line with November's gain which was also 1%.
But despite this slight recovery, the average cost of a property rose by just 5.1% during 2005 - the lowest growth for a decade, and below the long-term annual average of 8%.
At the same time, Halifax said house prices rose by less than 10% in all nine English regions for the first time since 1998.