The UK housing market showed signs of steady resilience in April 2025, with house prices rising modestly by 0.3 percent, following a slight dip in March (minus 0.5 percent). The average property now stands at £297,781, reflecting an annual growth of 3.2 percentthe strongest rate so far this year. Despite economic uncertainties, house prices have been remarkably stable over the past six months, falling by just £48 overall.

Regions such as Northern Ireland (8.1 percent), Wales (4.7 percent), and Scotland (4.6 percent) are leading the annual growth, outpacing all English regions. In England, the North West performed best (4.1 percent), while London lagged behind with a more muted increase of 1.3 percent. Still, London remains the UK's most expensive market at £543,346 on average.

Falling mortgage rates (now mostly under 4 percent) and real wage growth exceeding inflation have supported affordability, helping to sustain buyer activity. Although the market cooled after the stamp duty-driven rush earlier in the year, demand has held firm.

The outlook suggests continued modest growth, with inflationary pressures from rising household bills likely to be offset by anticipated base rate cutspointing to a cautiously optimistic trajectory for the housing market in the months ahead.

The Halifax House Price Index (HPI) is the UK's longest running monthly house price measure with data covering the whole country going back to January 1983. The index is based on the largest monthly sample of mortgage data, typically covering around 15,000 house purchases per month, and covers the whole calendar month. In March 2016 Markit announced that it would be acquiring the Halifax HPI from Lloyds Banking Group. Halifax continues to publish the index on behalf of Markit and both the name and the basic methodology remain unchanged. However, in May 2020, the annual growth measure was changed from the average of the last three months to just the latest month.

Home values affect much in the economy - especially the housing and consumer sectors. Periods of rising home values encourage new construction while periods of soft home prices can damp housing starts. Changes in home values play key roles in consumer spending and in consumer financial health. During the first half of this decade sharply rising home prices boosted how much home equity households held. In turn, this increased consumers' ability to spend, based on wealth effects and from being able to draw upon expanding home equity lines of credit.