UK house price growth halves to 0.8% in September, Nationwide says

Nationwide said on 1 October that annual UK house price growth halved to 0.8% in September 2026, from 1.6% in August, while its seasonally adjusted monthly index fell 0.2%. The slowdown matters to buyers and sellers weighing prices against borrowing costs, although the index alone cannot establish why prices moved.

The annual rate was the weakest since December 2025, Nationwide said. Its unadjusted average UK price was £274,251 in September, compared with £275,465 in August. The monthly fall followed a seasonally adjusted 0.2% rise in August; Nationwide notes that monthly percentage changes can be revised when it re-estimates seasonal adjustments.

The result was weaker than forecasts cited by The Guardian: economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to be unchanged on the month and rise 1.3% over the year. Those figures were expectations before the release, rather than alternative measurements of September prices.

How Nationwide describes mortgage-rate pressure

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said market activity and house prices had remained subdued in recent months, partly reflecting an uncertain economic backdrop. He linked pressure on mortgage pricing to market interest rates, which he said had risen as the Middle East conflict pushed up energy prices and intensified inflation concerns and expectations of Bank Rate increases. That is Gardner’s account of the wider market, not a causal finding drawn from the house price index.

The upward move had been visible earlier in the month. In a 17 September report, The Independent cited Moneyfacts figures showing an average five-year fixed homeowner rate of 5.87%, up from 5.81% the previous day. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% that day. Mortgage adviser Stephen Gomez told the paper that lenders can raise fixed rates when financial market expectations change even if the central bank leaves its rate unchanged.

Gardner also offered a counterweight to the pressure from mortgage rates. He said house price growth had been below earnings growth for some time, improving underlying affordability, and that higher mortgage rates had only partly offset those gains. He pointed to modest private-sector wage growth as a reason policymakers might have room to assess whether tighter policy is needed.

Where UK house prices rose and fell

Nationwide’s regional figures cover the third quarter, the three months to September, rather than September alone. Northern Ireland had the strongest annual growth at 5.9%, although that slowed from 8.6% in the second quarter. East Anglia was the weakest region, with prices down 0.7% year on year after rising 0.3% in the previous quarter. Nationwide said eight of its 13 regions recorded growth below 1%, including four with small annual falls.

Within England, the North West recorded annual growth of 3.9% in the third quarter, while London rose 0.4%. Nationwide put England’s overall rise at 0.5% and said prices across southern England were down 0.1%. The figures show why the UK-wide monthly rate does not describe every regional market: prices were still rising in some places even as they fell in others.

The quarterly UK average was £276,157, with annual growth of 1.2%. These figures differ from the September monthly average of £274,251 and annual growth of 0.8% because Nationwide’s quarterly statistics cover three months. Treating the two sets of figures as interchangeable would obscure both the period measured and the regional comparison.

How different property types performed

Terraced homes were the strongest-performing property type in Nationwide’s third-quarter data, up 1.8% from a year earlier, while flat prices were essentially unchanged. Nationwide said the price of a typical flat had risen 14% since the start of 2020, less than half the 31% rise for semi-detached homes. It attributed part of that longer-term gap to London’s weaker performance and its greater share of flats.

Gardner said housing activity could regain momentum in coming quarters if the energy shock fades and confidence returns, particularly if market interest rates fall back to pre-conflict levels. That is a conditional outlook. September’s price index and the reported mortgage-rate averages do not establish the direction of future prices or what an individual household will pay.