According to Dr. John McCartney, Director of Research at Savills, the return of faster house price growth in today’s CSO figures may reflect a delayed market reaction to the Central Bank’s new mortgage lending rules.

“Last October the Bank announced plans to make mortgage lending more restrictive.  However it said that people with loan offers in place prior to the regulations becoming law would still be able to borrow under the old rules.”

“This led to a stampede for loan approvals in the closing months of last year.  With these offers generally lasting for six months, time is running out for buyers with pre-existing approvals to borrow under the old regime.   It may be that demand from these motivated buyers is behind the rebound in price growth seen in today’s figures.”

However, McCartney said that this would be a temporary phenomenon and that the trend of moderating prices growth should reassert itself later in the year.