MP salary growth set to outstrip UK house prices for a second year running

Yesterday, MPs were dubbed as ‘out of touch’ as their latest in a steady stream of pay rises pushed the average salary to just under £80,000.

With this consider and with the UK housing market continuing to see price growth stutter as a result of Brexit uncertainty, the latest research by Benham and Reeves highlights that MP salary growth could outstrip UK house price growth for the second consecutive year.

Benham looked at the average MP salary since 2010 and compared this annual growth to UK house price data from the ONS.

The data shows that in 2018 house prices increased by just 1.3% on the previous year, while MPs salaries jumped 1.8% from £76,000 in 2017 to £77,379 in 2018.

This is the first time they’ve outstripped house price growth since 2015 when MPs enjoyed a mammoth jump of over 10% annually, while house prices increased at just 4.25%.

Since then Brexit uncertainty has seen annual house price growth fall each year but remain ahead of the increase in MPs salaries – until 2018.

With the end far from sight with regard to Brexit, the UK property market is likely to see property price growth remain subdued over 2019 and there is every chance annual growth will fail to reach the 2.7% increase in salaries already enjoyed by MPs so far this year.

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“It’s really quite disappointing to see that those who have been elected by the people are in line for a healthy pay bump, while the people themselves, hardworking homeowners who have struggled to make it onto the ladder, are seeing the value of their property stagnate as a result of the chaos that continues to unfold in Westminster.

There is no doubt that many MPs do an outstanding job of representing their constituencies although many have also added fuel to the flames of market uncertainty in contrast to the views of those they represent. Regardless, when the increasing rate of pay they are receiving starts to outstrip house price growth, even in slower market conditions, then something isn’t quite right. 

With this latest salary increase, it looks as if this trend that has materialised over the last year is likely to repeat itself in 2019 unless the UK market enjoys a price growth spurt that defies wider expectations.”

Year
MP Salaries
Annual Increase
Av. House Price
Annual Increase
2010
£65,738
–
£162,971
–
2011
£65,738
0.00%
£164,785
1.11%
2012
£65,738
0.00%
£162,924
-1.13%
2013
£66,396
1.00%
£174,444
7.07%
2014
£67,060
1.00%
£189,002
8.35%
2015
£74,000
10.35%
£197,044
4.25%
2016
£74,962
1.30%
£205,937
4.51%
2017
£76,011
1.40%
£211,433
2.67%
2018
£77,379
1.80%
£214,178
1.30%
2019
£79,468
2.70%

 

Properganda PR

National and local media coverage for property businesses. Journo quotes delivered in minutes.

You May Also Enjoy

Rightmove logo
Breaking News

London’s rental market bucks the national trend

New analysis from the UK’s largest property platform Rightmove reveals that rental demand in the capital is up 7% in September while Great Britain overall is 2% below last year Rental demand in London had been running around 7% below 2025 levels on average throughout 2026 until the end of August before moving into growth…
Read More →
Breaking News

Higher mortgage rates put buyers in the driving seat

Market conditions vary locally: three in four Scottish homes find a buyer within three months, compared with just three in ten in London   Mortgage rates now average 5.2 per cent, the highest level in three years, adding £150 a month (£1,800 a year) to typical repayments and further cooling buyer demand Homes for sale…
Read More →
Breaking News

Prime London buyer demand cools in Q3

he latest Prime London Demand Index by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, reveals that buyer demand across London’s core prime property market cooled during the third quarter of 2026, falling by -1.3% on a quarterly basis. However, a number of central London markets bucked the wider trend, with demand across the super-prime sector…
Read More →
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 30/9/26

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X. SaaS traditionally sells access, AI sells outcomes Thought Leadership by Author Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR For twenty years, one of the safest assumptions in property technology has been that software companies will become increasingly important. A property business identifies an inefficient process, a proptech company…
Read More →
how to present your property for sale
Estate Agent Talk

We’ve got the visitors. Now we need your listings.

Sponsored content, paid for by Domovita. More than 10,000 people a month come to Domovita, and nearly nine in ten of them arrive on a sold-price page for one particular street, looking up what the houses there went for. You can look up your own patch here. What those people don’t find yet is enough…
Read More →
Breaking News

Housing market hit by £18m increase in fall-through costs in Q2 2026

The latest Fall-Through Index by the House Buyer Bureau reveals that the number of property fall-throughs across the UK increased by 6.6% during the second quarter of 2026, resulting in an additional £18.3m in costs to the housing market compared to the previous quarter.   House Buyer Bureau analysed the latest data from TwentyCi on the…
Read More →