House prices in the UK rose dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic, with growth slowing down in 2022 and turning negative in 2023. The year-on-year annual house price change peaked at 14 percent in July 2022. In April 2025, house prices increased by 3.5 percent. As of late 2024, the average house price was close to 290,000 British pounds. Correction in housing prices: a European phenomenon The trend of a growing residential real estate market was not exclusive to the UK during the pandemic. Likewise, many European countries experienced falling prices in 2023. When comparing residential property RHPI (price index in real terms, e.g. corrected for inflation), countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and Spain also saw prices decline. Sweden, one of the countries with the fastest growing residential markets, saw one of the largest declines in prices. How has demand for UK housing changed since the outbreak of the coronavirus? The easing of the lockdown was followed by a dramatic increase in home sales. In November 2020, the number of mortgage approvals reached an all-time high of over 107,000. One of the reasons for the housing boom were the low mortgage rates, allowing home buyers to take out a loan with an interest rate as low as 2.5 percent. That changed as the Bank of England started to raise the base lending rate, resulting in higher borrowing costs and a decline in homebuyer sentiment.

In 2022, house price growth in the UK slowed, after a period of decade-long increase. Nevertheless, in June 2025, prices reached a new peak, with the average home costing ******* British pounds. This figure refers to all property types, including detached, semi-detached, terraced houses, and flats and maisonettes. Compared to other European countries, the UK had some of the highest house prices. How have UK house prices increased over the last 10 years? Property prices have risen dramatically over the past decade. According to the UK house price index, the average house price has grown by over ** percent since 2015. This price development has led to the gap between the cost of buying and renting a property to close. In 2023, buying a three-bedroom house in the UK was no longer more affordable than renting one. Consequently, Brits have become more likely to rent longer and push off making a house purchase until they have saved up enough for a down payment and achieved the financial stability required to make the step. What caused the recent fluctuations in house prices? House prices are affected by multiple factors, such as mortgage rates, supply, and demand on the market. For nearly a decade, the UK experienced uninterrupted house price growth as a result of strong demand and a chronic undersupply. Homebuyers who purchased a property at the peak of the housing boom in July 2022 paid ** percent more compared to what they would have paid a year before. Additionally, 2022 saw the most dramatic increase in mortgage rates in recent history. Between December 2021 and December 2022, the **-year fixed mortgage rate doubled, adding further strain to prospective homebuyers. As a result, the market cooled, leading to a correction in pricing.

The average house price in Northern Ireland has increased since 2015, with minor fluctuations over time. The house price index is calculated using data on housing transactions and measures the development of house prices, with 2023 chosen as a base year when the index value was set to 100. In May 2025, the house price index reached 113.9, meaning that house prices have grown by nearly 14 percent since January 2023 and 9.5 percent since the same month a year ago. Among the different regions in the UK, the West and East Midlands experienced the strongest growth.

According to a survey conducted among ***** adults in the United Kingdom (UK), as of March 2021, more people expected that the price of residential properties would increase in the next year (** percent), compared to those who believed prices would fall (** percent). In the beginning of the observation period, half of respondents were convinced that house prices would rise, whereas *** percent were of the opposite opinion.

Investments in the commercial property market in London peaked in 2017 and have since declined. In 2022, the value of investment in the sector was **** billion British pounds, which was a slight uptick from the previous year. Many European countries followed the same trend and experienced an increase in investments in 2022. According to the forecast, investment volumes in London are expected to fall in 2023, as developed markets continue to tackle accelerating inflation. In the following years, the market is expected to grow year-on-year, reaching about **** billion British pounds in 2027.

The construction output value of new public housing in Great Britain from January 2017 to November 2020 in million British pounds increased with fluctuations. In 2020, however, a massive drop is visible in the value of construction output of public housing. In April 2020, the value amounted to 184 million British pounds, not even a third of the value reached in October 2019 (617 million British pounds). This change could be explained by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Great Britain in the first quarter of 2020.

Mortgage interest rates in the UK were on a downward trend for more than a decade before soaring in 2022. In the first quarter of 2025, the average weighted interest rate stood at **** percent — nearly ***** times the interest rate in the first quarter of 2022. Mortgage rates also vary depending on the type of mortgage: Historically, fixed rate mortgages with a shorter term had on average lower interest rates. What types of mortgages are there? In terms of the type of interest rate, mortgages can be fixed and variable. A fixed interest rate is simply a mortgage where the rate of repayment is fixed, while a variable rate depends on the lender’s underlying variable interest rate. Furthermore, mortgages could be for a house purchase or for refinancing. The vast majority of mortgages in the UK are fixed rate mortgages for house purchase, and only a small share is for remortgaging. How big is the UK mortgage market? The UK has the largest mortgage market in Europe, amounting to over ** billion euros in gross residential mortgage lending as of the fourth quarter of 2024. When comparing the total outstanding residential mortgage lending, the UK also ranks first with about *** trillion euros.