{"id":820430,"date":"2026-11-01T04:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T04:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820430\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T04:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T04:46:10","slug":"house-price-growth-slows-to-0-5-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/820430\/","title":{"rendered":"House price growth slows to 0.5% in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

12:03 AM, 1st November 2026, 5 hours ago <\/p>\n

\"UK <\/p>\n

Annual UK house price growth fell<\/a> to its weakest since January 2024 in October, with prices barely higher than a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Month on month, they did not move at all after seasonal adjustments.<\/p>\n

Nationwide\u2019s latest figures put annual growth at 0.5%, down from 0.8% in September.<\/p>\n

The average price before seasonal adjustment was \u00a3273,566, compared with \u00a3274,251 the previous month.<\/p>\n

Mortgage pricing under pressure<\/p>\n

The lender\u2019s chief economist, Robert Gardner, said: \u201cMarket activity and house price growth have slowed in recent months, in part reflecting the uncertain economic backdrop.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeopolitical tensions remain high, with the conflict in the Middle East exerting upward pressure on energy prices, fanning inflation concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis in turn has led to mounting financial market expectations of Bank Rate increases, which have maintained upward pressure on the market interest rates which underpin mortgage pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the short term, he says, house prices<\/a> look set to decline further with weak demand from home buyers.<\/p>\n

Housing affordability gains remain<\/p>\n

Mr Gardner pointed to an economy that has proved resilient so far, with annual growth accelerating in recent quarters.<\/p>\n

Employment and real incomes are holding up well, he said.<\/p>\n

Household debt remains close to its lowest level in 20 years relative to disposable income.<\/p>\n

Higher market interest rates have only partly reversed the improvement in housing affordability over the past two years, as incomes have continued to grow considerably faster than house prices.<\/p>\n

Property sector reaction to Nationwide house price index<\/p>\n

Tom Bill, the head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said: \u201cWith both main house price indices hovering around zero and mortgage approvals down by almost a fifth versus last year, the toll of the Middle East conflict on the UK housing market is more obvious with each passing month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of rising mortgage costs eclipses any support measure announced in this week\u2019s Budget, although the absence of major shocks from the Chancellor may produce a modest relief bounce in coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, asking prices will need to reflect the much tougher financial landscape that buyers face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, said: \u201cThe impact of the Middle East war on mortgage rates and inflation has been well documented but the period leading up to the Budget covered by these figures added a further layer of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWord in our offices is that buyers and sellers who have recently paused decision-making now have a clearer idea of what the near-term at least will bring so are slowly resuming activity, albeit cautiously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Harris, the chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: \u201cHouse price growth continues to slow as higher mortgage rates and affordability constraints impact the price buyers are able or willing to pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s plans to help first-time buyers via its new scheme unveiled in the Budget are welcome but they will have to wait until the spring to take action. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that on its own it will be enough to boost the transactions and activity the market needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigel\u00a0Bishop of Recoco Property Search said: \u201cThe property market hasn\u2019t experienced an Autumn bounce this year as the lack of buyer activity continued in October with sellers attracting far fewer offers than they had hoped for.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome had no choice but to reduce their asking price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12:03 AM, 1st November 2026, 5 hours ago Annual UK house price growth fell to its weakest since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-820430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}