UK house prices up 1.1 pct mm in July

House prices in Britain rose a bigger-than-expected 1.1 percent in July, leaving prices down 12.1 percent in the three months to July versus a year ago, the smallest fall in 11 months, mortgage lender Halifax said on Wednesday.

Compared with last July, prices were just 9.9 percent lower, the smallest annual fall since June 2008, and a marked improvement from the 18.9 percent annual fall recorded in December.

The figures tally with other recent surveys suggesting the decline in housing market activity may be starting to level off and the mortgage lender noted that demand for homes had risen since the start of the year, helped by low interest rates.

However, it cautioned against reading too much into July's monthly rise in prices, warning that the market remained vulnerable.

"I wouldn't want to get too excited about the improvement this month because the housing market still faces considerable headwinds," Halifax economist Martin Ellis told Reuters.

"Unemployment is rising sharply and is expected to keep rising for some time and there's a shortage of mortgage credit available and I don't see that changing dramatically in the near term."

July's monthly increase more than reversed June's upwardly-revised 0.4 percent fall and took the average price of a home to 159,623 pounds ($270,400).

Analysts had forecast a rise of 0.6 percent on the month, for a three-month annual decline of 12.3 percent.