UK property prices continue to decline

Once again, Nationwide's House Price Index posted a loss for the month, the seventh in a row, marking the largest annual decline since 2009.

Prices fell by an average of 0.8% in March and by 3.1% over the year. The last twelve months have been characterised by what now appears to be irrational price rises driven by the post-pandemic boom, followed by a correction once the ecomomic realities, caused in part by geopolitical events, became clear.

Nationwide's figures for March

.

March 2023

February 2023

Monthly change

-0.8%

-0.5%

Annual change

-3.1%

-1.1%

Average price

£257,122

£257,406

Robert Gardner, chief economist, Nationwide:

"The housing market reached a turning point last year as a result of the turbulence which followed the mini-Budget. Since then, activity has remained subdued - the number of mortgage approvals for house purchase has remained weak, with mortgage approvals for house purchase remained weak at 43,500 cases in February, almost 40% below the figure prevailing a year ago.

"It will be hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term since consumer confidence remains weak and household budgets remain under pressure due to high inflation."

Regional variations

Nationwide's quarterly regional indeces saw nine of their thirteen regions post negative growth over the last year.

The West Midlands was the strongest performing region, showing a gain of 1.4% for the year. The other regions posting  positive growth were Northern Ireland, the South West and the East Midlands.

Broadly, the northern half of England was flat, Scotland showed a sharp reversal from plus 3.3% to minus 3.3% over the quarter and southern England declined by 1.1%. London saw a fall of 1.4%.

These figures vary from the national figures above as they are based on the average prices over the quarter, whereas the national figures are based on the month of March.