The house price index calculated by Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, fell 1.1 per cent in December to reach a level slightly more than 3 per cent higher than a year earlier.
This contrasted with the rival index published by Nationwide Building Society last week. It showed a 1.2 per cent jump during the month, taking the annual house price inflation rate to 9.3 per cent.Despite the divergence in their figures, both lenders concluded the housing market is expanding at a steady and sustainable pace. Martin Ellis, a spokesman for Halifax, said: “The economy is doing well and will support reasonable but not spectacular growth.”Both lenders also hope that interest rates will remain unchanged or even start to fall, which would allow them to keep mortgage rates at the current low levels.George Buckley, UK economist at Deutsche Bank, said: “House price measures can be very erratic month-to-month. The basic picture is steady as she goes at the moment.”Other recent evidence suggests that the housing market has revived somewhat after a slowdown in the autumn.Four mortgage rate increases up to February last year and the abolition of mortgage interest tax relief last April brought down house price inflation from double digits at the start of last year.However, Bank of England figures earlier this week showed total mortgage borrowing in November climbed to a new monthly record of £4.1bn. In addition the number of new mortgage loans approved increased compared with the previous three months.Mr Ellis agreed it would be wrong to read too much into a one-month fall, especially as there were few transactions in December.

But he warned that if the economy did slow down, a loss of confidence would undermine house prices.. It seemed the most romantic (and practical) way to get away for our honeymoon. Chuck off the wedding dress and DJ when the party ended at midnight, and grab a taxi straight for the airport with our bags ready packed. It seemed the most romantic (and practical) way to get away for our honeymoon. Chuck off the wedding dress and DJ when the party ended at midnight, and grab a taxi straight for the airport with our bags ready packed.
My wife Melanie Powell and I were off to Venezuela for the adventure of a lifetime, travelling to the pinnacles of the Andes, traversing Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” and heading by canoe into the jungle of the Orinoco Delta. So we were bleary-eyed but excited when we waited at the luggage carousel at Caracas airport after our 13-hour flight with the Dutch airline KLM from Stansted, via Amsterdam.My heart fell when my bag came off first. The top was flapping open, the lock had been wrenched off and my tropical clothing had been stolen (including, bizarrely, my underpants).

We waited for the other bag, until that awful moment when a single cardboard box was left on the carousel unclaimed, and I realised that our luggage was not going to come.The sole Venezuelan official in the arrivals hall was surrounded by a remonstrating crowd. We waited patiently to record the loss, and after much filling in of forms (Venezuelans thrive on paperwork) he flourished a telex to say that it had already been known when the plane took off that the baggage had not been loaded at Amsterdam “But why didn’t they tell us?” A shrug. “Go to the KLM offices.”Two hours had passed by the time we reached the KLM office, which was closed and deserted. A man pushing a mop volunteers: “They always take a break after the plane comes in.” It is another hour before they return. We are grudgingly given $100 (£68) to buy some clothes (a paltry amount since the Venezuela cost of living is the same as the UK’s).

They tell us there will be no luggage tomorrow since KLM do not have a flight. “So when will we get it?” No idea.There is a bigger problem still, since since we were booked to fly at 7.30 the next morning to Merida, the capital of the Andes, which is 400 miles away. My wife has just the cardigan, T-shirt, trousers, socks and knickers she was wearing. This is just about bearable for tropical Caracas, but we had planned to ascend 16,000 ft to the snowline at the top of Pico Espejo, one of the country’s highest mountains.We try hunting for clothes, but this is a country minus Gap, M&S or Next, and Merida’s few stores are consumed in the kind of pre-Christmas scrimmage we have come to get away from. We emerge from the fray with a single item – a pair of knickers which might have been rococo enough for Eva Peron’s honeymoon, but not quite right for us. So we brave the cold and make endless expensive calls hunting down the luggage.By the fourth day, we are miserable and consider abandoning the trip altogether.

We are due to fly 800 miles to the “Lost World” on the Brazilian border It is humid, sweaty, insect-ridden and rocky It just cannot be done without the right gear. Then we are saved – not by KLM but by the kindness of the travel agent who booked our air tickets in Caracas. He has driven to the airport to retrieve at least my wife’s luggage, but not my stolen items. So back again to Caracas to be reunited with the bag – five days on.We carry on. Though I am forced to sweat in my London clothes, it is better to be too hot than freezing. I also know that airlines have very little responsibility in law to people whose luggage they lose.