Average UK house price dips in April

The UK’s second largest mortgage lender said the annual pace of house price growth slowed to 4.9 per cent in April, compared with 5.7 per cent in the previous month.

The Nationwide data comes as the Land Registry House Price Index for March showed house prices were 6.7 per cent higher in March than twelve months before, racing ahead by over 10 per cent in London, the South East and East of the UK.

Doug Crawford, CEO of My Home Move, said: “This reflects heightened activity ahead of the new stamp duty surcharge – the market has since cooled and with the Brexit Referendum on people’s minds, we are expecting an uncertain few months.”

In April alone, Nationwide said house prices rose by just 0.2 per cent, the lowest monthly increase since last November.

The number of property sales in March hit a record high, the building society said, as landlords rushed to beat a rise in stamp duty.

There were 165,400 transactions during the month, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), higher than the previous peak of 149,000 in January 2007.

“It may be that the surge in house purchase activity resulting from the increase in stamp duty on second homes from 1 April provided a temporary boost to prices in March,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist.

Nationwide’s figures show that the price of the average house or flat in the UK increased to a new record high of £202,436.

“House purchase activity is likely to fall in the months ahead given the number of purchasers that brought forward transactions,” said Mr Gardner.

“The recovery thereafter may also be fairly gradual, especially in the BTL sector, where a wealth of other policy changes, such as the reduction in tax relief for landlords from 2017 are likely to exert an ongoing drag.”