UK house price growth slows to 14-year low in December

UK house price growth decelerated at pace in December, according to lender Nationwide, with prices delivering their worst performance since the Global Financial Crisis.

In annual terms, house price growth dropped to 2.8% in December, down from 4.4% in November but ahead of the 2.3% growth rate predicted by economists.

Nationwide said on Friday that prices had dipped 0.1% month-on-month in December for a fourth consecutive fall and the worst run since 2008. Economists had pencilled-in a fall to 0.7%.

The report pointed out that East Anglia was the strongest performing region in 2022, while Scotland was the weakest, and also highlighted that the gap between the weakest and strongest regions was the smallest since Society’s regional indices began in 1974.

Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said: "While financial market conditions have settled, mortgage rates are taking longer to normalise and activity in the housing market has shown few signs of recovery.

"It will be hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term as economic headwinds strengthen, with real earnings set to fall further and the labour market widely projected to weaken as the economy shrinks."

Earlier in the month, Halifax said house prices in the UK had crashed by 2.3% in November – the biggest monthly fall since 2008. Halifax also revealed that the annual rate of house price growth had slowed to 4.7%, down from 8.2%, with the average UK house price sitting at £285,579 in November.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com