Annual house price growth halves in September
- UK annual house price growth halved to 0.8% in September, from 1.6% in August
- Northern Ireland remained best performing region, with prices up 5.9% year on year in Q3 2026
- East Anglia weakest performing region, with annual decline of 0.7%
- Terraced properties were the strongest performing property type, with a 1.8% rise, whilst flats remained weakest with prices essentially unchanged compared with a year ago.
Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:
“September saw UK annual house price growth halve to 0.8%, the weakest rate of growth since December 2025. Prices were down 0.2% month-on-month, after taking account of seasonal effects.
“Market activity and house prices have remained subdued in recent months, in part reflecting the uncertain economic backdrop. Geopolitical tensions remain high, with the conflict in the Middle East exerting upward pressure on energy prices, fanning inflation concerns. This in turn has led to mounting financial market expectations of Bank Rate increases, which has maintained upward pressure on the market interest rates which underpin mortgage pricing.
“Nevertheless, there have been encouraging signs that higher energy prices are not feeding through to underlying price pressures. In particular, private sector wage growth has remained modest, which should give policymakers breathing space to assess the extent to which tighter policy is necessary to ensure inflation returns sustainably to target.
“Underlying affordability is improving, as house price growth has been well below earnings growth for some time. These gains have been only partially offset by higher mortgage rates. This suggests that activity should regain momentum in the quarters ahead providing the energy shock fades and confidence returns – especially if market interest rates fall back to pre-conflict levels.
Most regions see slowing in house price growth
“Most regions saw a slowing in annual house price growth in Q3 (the three months to September). Eight of the thirteen regions saw annual growth below 1%, with four of these recording a small annual decline.
“There is a distinct regional pattern, with the strongest performing regions located in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The latter remained the strongest performing region by a healthy margin, although annual price growth slowed to 5.9%, from 8.6% in Q2.
“Overall, England saw annual price growth slow to 0.5%. Average prices in Northern England (comprising North, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber, East Midlands and West Midlands) were up 1.6% year on year. The North West (which includes areas such as Cheshire, Lancashire & Greater Manchester) remained the top performing region in England, with prices up 3.9% year on year, unchanged from last quarter.
“Meanwhile, average prices in Southern England (South West, Outer South East, Outer Metropolitan, London and East Anglia) were down 0.1% year on year. London was the only southern region to record an annual price rise, a modest 0.4%. Meanwhile, the surrounding Outer Metropolitan region saw a 0.2% annual fall. East Anglia was the weakest performing UK region, with prices down 0.7% year on year.
Slowing in growth across all property types
“Our most recent data shows that all property types saw a slowing in annual house price growth in Q3.
“Terraced properties were the strongest performing, with a 1.8% rise, whilst flats remained weakest with prices essentially unchanged compared with a year ago.
“Looking over the longer term, flats have seen noticeably weaker growth than other property types. For example, since the start of 2020, the price of a typical flat has increased by 14%, less than half the rise in the price of semi-detached, which saw a 31% rise over the same period. This is partly a reflection of regional trends where London, which has a much greater proportion of flats, has underperformed the wider UK.”
Quarterly Regional House Price Statistics – Q3 2026
Please note that these figures are for the three months to September, therefore will show a different UK average price and annual percentage change to our monthly house price statistics.
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