UK house prices fall at fastest pace in four years after stamp duty rise

Stay in view of the free updates

Simply subscribe to Home prices in the United Kingdom Myft Digest – it is delivered directly to your inbox.

House prices in the United Kingdom decreased at the fastest monthly pace in nearly four years in April, as the demand fell after the end of a temporary conclusion.

Real estate prices decreased by 2.8 percent between March and April, a sharp decrease for a month since July 2021, according to registry data published on Wednesday.

The decrease reached the average home price to 265,000 pounds and the annual growth paid to 3.5 percent, from 7 percent in the previous month, which is the first slowdown since December 2023.

“The annual inflation in home prices in UK has slowed in April, after changes to the land tax in England and Northern Ireland,” said Amy North, head of the housing market indicators at the National Statistics Office.

I went back to the stamp fees to the pre -2022 levels on April 1, and an increase COsts for many real estate buyers. For example, buyers will start for the first time to pay a tax of 300,000 pounds or more, from 425,000 pounds.

The southwest recorded the slightest increase in annual homes prices, by only 0.9 percent, after sharp shrinking by 3.8 percent on the basis of the month, as the average cost of the house reached 300,600 pounds.

Official figures indicate a greater decrease in home prices between March and April, from a 0.6 percent decrease in the country at the end of April.

Unlike the national, official data includes real estate loans from all service providers and includes cash buyers.

Some economists believe that lower home price growth is temporary.

Elliot Jordan-Dawak, an economist in the overall economy consulting consulting, said the trend was driven by “relaxation of activity” before tax change instead of “the highest taxes that reach demand.”

He added: “We expect the slowdown to be brief with the normalization of the market.”

Separate data at the country level reported the rise in home prices again in May, with the support of strong wages growth and low mortgage rates from their peaks in the summer of 2023.

ONS data also referred to cooling in the rental market, but with the pressure on the tenants as a whole.

The average monthly private rents in the United Kingdom increased by 7 percent to 1,339 pounds, in 12 months to May, and the fifth month of slow and low annual average since April 2023.

Luisza Sydgek, the administrative director of the Paraguce Bank, said that the tenants will undoubtedly welcome “the moderate rents, but they remained high after the record in the last quarter.

She added: “The provision of rented homes from the private sector is still less than the levels that were seen before the epidemic and greatly outperformed the demand, which is a dynamic that will witness that the rents continue to rise above the inflation rate.”