U.K. House Prices Bounced Back in December, Survey Shows

U.K. house prices bounced back in December after they ground to a halt the previous month, a survey showed Thursday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its monthly house price balance increased by eight points to plus 8 in the final month of the year.

This was significantly above the consensus estimate of analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal, who expected the index to slip further, to minus 2.

A reading of plus 8 means there was an 8% rise in the number of property professionals surveyed by RICS who saw a house-price increase rather than a fall.

The U.K.'s property market has cooled somewhat this year as fast growth in consumer prices combined with meager increases in earnings to squeeze British shoppers' wallets, prompting them to pare back spending.

The Bank of England in November raised borrowing costs for the first time in a decade, increasing the benchmark interest rate to 0.5% in an effort to curb accelerating inflation.

Write to Wiktor Szary at Wiktor.Szary@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2018 19:15 ET (00:15 GMT)