Average house prices showed almost no movement in November, rising by only £139 to £299,892. This near-flat performance signals a housing market that has settled into a rare period of stability, despite policy changes and budget uncertainty. Annual growth slowed to 0.7 percent, the weakest since March 2024, mainly because prices grew much faster last year.

For existing homeowners, this softer momentum may feel underwhelming, yet it marks a positive shift for first-time buyers. Affordability has improved to its strongest point since 2015, supported by lower mortgage costs relative to income, even with higher interest rates.

This suggests that the market is slowly rebalancing after years of strained affordability. With steady demand and expectations of future interest rate cuts, the outlook points towards gentle, sustained price growth as the market moves into 2026.

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.