The average UK house price rose by 0.9% to £273,000 in the year to August 2026, according to provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Annual growth slowed for the fourth consecutive month.
The latest increase was down from 1.2% in the year to July, reflecting a slowdown in six of England’s nine regions, the ONS found.
The figures point to a cooling housing market, with London continuing to experience falling prices while Wales and Scotland recorded stronger annual growth.
However, separate figures from the ONS today showed that average private rents increased by 3.8% in the year to September.
In England, the average house price reached £294,000 in August, up 0.4% or £2,000 on the previous year. However, annual growth eased from 0.9% in July.
London recorded the weakest performance of any English region, with prices falling by 2.2% over the 12 months to August.
Although the decline was smaller than the 3.2% annual fall recorded in July, the capital’s average property price remains £15,000 below its recent peak of £569,000 in July 2025. It has recovered by £8,000 since reaching a low of £546,000 in March 2026.
The decline was largely driven by falling flat prices, which dropped by 5% over the year. Flats account for approximately half of property sales in London, compared with around one-fifth across Great Britain.
While prices for houses in the capital increased, the fall in flat values was sufficient to pull the overall market into negative territory.
The South East also recorded negative annual house price inflation, highlighting continued weakness in parts of southern England.
By contrast, the North East recorded the strongest annual price growth among English regions, at 3.2%. However, this was down from 4.7% in July, indicating that the slowdown in growth is spreading across the country.
Wales and Scotland continued to outperform England. The average house price in Wales increased by 3.1% over the year to £216,000, accelerating from 2.2% in July. In Scotland, prices rose by 2.9% to £198,000, up from annual growth of 2.4% the previous month.
Northern Ireland recorded the strongest annual increase across the UK’s nations, with average prices rising by 9.2% to £202,000 in the second quarter of 2026, compared with the same period a year earlier. This was the highest annual growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2022.
The increase partly reflected a stronger rise in prices between the first and second quarters of 2026, when they grew by 2.1%, compared with 0.6% over the same period in 2025. The earlier period coincided with changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax in April 2025.
The figures follow a subdued outlook in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ August 2026 UK Residential Market Survey, which indicated continued modest downward pressure on house prices nationally. London reported a steeper decline than the UK average, while the North West continued to record modest growth.
