House Prices Peak, but Growth Rate Is Slowing

According to official data, house prices continued to climb despite the Brexit blues subduing the property market. 

The value of an average UK home increased by 2.2% in the year to November 30 2019. The rise makes the average home in England worth £251,000, while those in Wales reached £173,000 and £155,000 in Scotland. 

Increasing values mainly drove English house prices in the West Midlands (+4%) and North West (3.8%). The lowest increases were in Eastern England (-0.4%) and London (+0.2%).

“While house price growth in London was low, the area remains the most expensive place to purchase a property, at an average of £475,000. The North East continued to have the lowest average house price, at £131,000, and is the only English region yet to surpass its pre-economic downturn peak of July 2007,” says the ONS report. 

“Over the past three years, there has been a general slowdown in UK house price growth, driven mainly by a slowdown in the south and east of England.”

House prices in Wales surged by 7.8% and 3.5% in Scotland. 

The trend is for UK house prices to increase each month since January 2013, when the average UK property was worth £167,716 - an increase of 49.66%. In the decade from January 2009, prices have gone up 59.63% from £157,234 and peaked in November 2019.