Price of homes rises by 1.5 per cent

Homeowners enjoyed another increase in the value of their homes in May, Britain's biggest mortgage lender said today.

The average price of a home rose by 1.5 per cent to £129,568, according to latest figures from the Halifax. But in a sign the market is cooling, the year-onyear rate of increase eased from 23.6 per cent to 22.7 per cent.

The figures showed that in the first five months of 2003 house prices increased at an average monthly rate of 1.3 per cent. Nationally, prices have risen by 6.5 per cent in the first five months of the year.

Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis said: "The increases so far this year are, however, at almost half the pace of the last five months of 2002 when prices rose by 2.4 per cent a month on average."

Last week Nationwide building society reported that house price growth had picked up again after stalling in April but warned the trend was gradually declining.