"Whilst house prices remained unchanged in February, we’ve continued to see positive growth on an annual basis, and this is a far better measure of the ongoing improvements seen in the health of the UK property market"
- Verona Frankish - Yopa
Average UK house price annual inflation was 5.4% in the 12 months to February 2025, up from the revised estimate of 4.8% in the 12 months to January 2025, according to provisional estimates.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average UK house prices remained unchanged between January 2025 and February 2025 (0.0%), compared with a decrease of 0.5% in the same period 12 months ago. On a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK increased by 0.5% between January 2025 and February 2025.
National and regional breakdown
The average UK house price was £268,000 in February 2025 (provisional estimate), which is £13,000 higher than 12 months ago. Average house prices in the 12 months to February 2025 increased in England to £292,000 (5.3%), increased in Wales to £207,000 (4.1%) and increased in Scotland to £186,000 (5.7%). The average house price increased in the year to Q4 (Oct to Dec) 2024 to £183,000 in Northern Ireland (9.0%).
Of English regions, annual house price inflation was highest in the North West, where prices increased by 8.0% in the 12 months to February 2025. London was the English region with the lowest annual inflation, where prices increased by 1.7% in the 12 months to February 2025.
Industry reaction
CEO of Yopa, Verona Frankish, commented: “Whilst house prices remained unchanged in February, we’ve continued to see positive growth on an annual basis and this is a far better measure of the ongoing improvements seen to the health of the UK property market.
"We also saw the Bank of England implement a second base rate reduction in February, and so it’s only a matter of time before this boost to buyer market sentiment starts to accelerate the level of house price growth being seen across the market.”
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, comments: “The dip in inflation to 2.6 per cent is encouraging news as far as future interest rate movements are concerned, and if this downwards trend continues, it will make it easier for the Bank of England to cut rates again sooner rather than later.
"Another rate reduction would help boost affordability, and would be particularly timely now that the stamp duty concession has ended.
“On the mortgage front, a number of lenders have cut rates on the back of lower Swap rates. The best deals aren’t hanging around for long, however, so borrowers who see a rate they like the look of would be wise to speak to a whole-of-market broker and reserve it in case mortgage rates do edge upwards again."
Tomer Aboody, director of specialist lender MT Finance, said: "As property prices rise, showing demand is high, we are also seeing the lowest sales volumes year on year for the past five years. Lower supply should always translate into higher prices, as buyers fight for the homes that are available.
"With the lack of a replacement for the stamp duty concession, inflicted by Rachel Reeves, we saw a final stampede towards the end of March, as buyers tried to close transactions before being hit with higher tax.
"Another reduction in interest rates has been discussed, which will help push volumes up, but in order to get back to levels from yesteryear, stamp duty has to be reduced."
Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented: “As predicted, the UK property market has continued to stand strong during the first few months of the year, demonstrating that the improvements to market sentiment seen over the course of 2024 are here to stay.
"Whilst we’ve seen a renewed degree of economic instability in recent weeks thanks to Trump’s tariff war, this is unlikely to deter the nation's homebuyers from their property purchasing ambitions in 2025.
"Now that the dust has settled on the stamp duty deadline, we expect that the positivity of the first few months will only strengthen over the course of the year and the outlook remains a very good one indeed.”
