Housing market sees slowest level of price growth since 2012

Based on figures published by Zoopla, the market has also seen a reduction in the number of sales made, driven by both higher mortgage rates as well as cost-of-living pressures weakening demand as a whole.  

This slower pace has primarily been driven by drops seen in the south of England – going down by one percent in both London and the east of England, by 0.9% in the south east and by 0.8% in the south west. However, house prices are going up in the rest of the UK – with Scotland seeing the highest annual growth of 1.7%.  

Additionally, over the past four weeks demand from buyers has been 34% lower than the average during the month of August over the past five years – leading to the total number of property sales being down by 20%. This, in turn, means there’s less pressure on prices which leads to lower growth or house price falls.  

High mortgage rates of five percent or more are currently having the biggest impact on house prices as they’re reducing demand from several key groups of buyers.

As for the rest of 2023, the real estate company expects house prices to fall by a further two percent this year – bringing the overall fall in UK house prices to five percent in 2023. However, more affordable regions like the north of England and Scotland will continue to see low house price growth of up to two percent.