Source: Sharecast
Nationwide's monthly house price index fell to 543.0 last month, down 0.4% from November's 545.2, with average prices easing to £271,068.
That was just 0.6% higher than December 2024, lower than the 1.8% annual increase registered in November and the weakest rate of year-on-year growth since April 2024.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said house prices "ended 2025 on a softer note", but noted that the 4.7% annual growth in December 2024 can partly explain the slowdown.
“Despite the softer end to the year, the word that best describes the housing market in 2025 overall is ‘resilient’. Even though consumer sentiment was relatively subdued, with households reluctant to spend and mortgage rates around three times their post pandemic lows, mortgage approvals remained near pre-Covid levels."
For the fourth quarter as a whole, UK prices were up 1.7% with most regions across the UK seeing modest annual house price growth, with the exception of East Anglia where prices slipped 0.8% – the first annual decline in a region since the second quarter of 2024.
In contrast, Northern Ireland saw the strongest growth with 9.7% year-on-year, outperforming the rest of the UK by a wide margin.
“Despite these significant price gains, house prices in Northern Ireland are still around 5% below the all-time high recorded in 2007, while UK prices are almost 50% higher over the same period. As a result, the price of a typical home in Northern Ireland is currently around 79% of the UK average price, while in 2007 it was around 25% higher," Gardner explained.
