The latest house price reports suggest that growth has continued, but annual growth has slowed.

The latest Halifax Report said that the monthly average price had increased by +0.7% following a dip of -0.2% the previous month. However, annual growth had eased slightly to +3.0% compared to +3.4% the previous month. 

Amanday Bryden, Head of Mortgages at the Halifax said – 

“Affordability is still a challenge for many would-be buyers, but the market’s resilience is noteworthy. There’s strong demand for new mortgages and growth in lending. With a stamp duty increase looming, some of this demand may have come from first-time buyers eager to complete transactions before the end of March.

“Despite geopolitical uncertainties, and waning consumer confidence, other key indicators look fairly positive for the housing market.”

The latest Nationwide report was a little more conservative in terms of monthly growth. It stated that the monthly change was +0.1% compared to +0.7% the previous month. However, it did state that annual growth was at +4.1%, down from +4.7% the previous month.

Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist said –

“The housing market continues to show resilience despite ongoing affordability pressures. As we highlighted in our recent affordability report, while there has been a modest improvement over the last year, affordability remains stretched by historic standards.”

The latest Hometrack report was even more conservative.

It stated that annual growth is at +2.0%. However, Richard Donnell, Executive Director of Research at Hometrack said –

“2025 is off to a better start than the previous 2 years. This bodes well for market activity over the rest of the year and supported by more people looking to buy in the next 2 years”

The ONS has reported an annual increase of +4.6%.

The latest Rightmove report which focuses on asking prices, said that price growth had slowed as the stamp duty deadline looms, but activity remains robust.

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove said – 

“Agents report that some of the steam is coming out of new sellers’ price expectations to fit the changing market conditions, which is a sensible reaction to attract buyer interest, and it will also help to support activity levels.”

Zoopla also reported that UK house prices have grown at the fastest rates since April 2023.

Our thoughts

We have seen consistent levels of activity since January although it does feel that the sense of urgency has reduced slightly in February. This could be to do with people accepting that they will not complete before the stamp duty deadline and/or sellers adjusting prices as per the Rightmove report.

With the Bank of England Base Rate and mortgage fixed rates reducing in recent weeks, it will be interesting to see what effect this has on activity and prices as we move into Spring.