The average UK house cost £273,000 in July, with annual price growth slowing to 1.4% — and London prices falling outright even as the North East leads the country.

The average home in the UK was worth £273,000 in July 2026, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 16 September. Prices were 1.4% higher than a year earlier, a further slowing from the pace seen in previous months and a sign that the housing market has continued to lose momentum.

The slowdown is a story about the rate of growth, not about a fall in prices at the national level. House prices are still rising, just more slowly than before. Annual growth had been running higher earlier in the year — around 2.0% in the year to June and 3.0% in the year to May on the ONS series — so the 1.4% figure for July marks a continued deceleration rather than an outright decline in the UK average.

Slowing growth is not falling prices

The distinction between slower growth and falling prices is easy to blur but important. When annual growth eases from 3.0% to 1.4%, homes are on average still becoming more expensive; they are simply appreciating at a gentler pace. Prices would only be falling if the annual growth rate turned negative, which at the UK level it has not.

That said, beneath the national average some parts of the country are seeing genuine declines, and the headline masks a wide regional spread. A single UK figure of 1.4% is the net result of markets moving in different directions, and it should not be read as the experience of every buyer or seller.

London falls while the North East leads

The clearest example of that divergence is London. Prices in the Capital fell by 3.3% over the year to July — an outright decline, not merely slower growth. As the most expensive region, with the largest absolute price tags, London exerts a significant drag on the national average even when other regions are rising.

At the opposite end, the North East of England recorded the strongest annual house price growth of any English region at 4.9%. The contrast between a falling London market and a rising North East echoes the pattern seen in rents, where northern regions have also been outpacing the capital. It reinforces a broader theme in the data: the north and south of England are moving on different trajectories.

The picture across the four nations

Across the UK's constituent countries, the averages and growth rates vary considerably. In England, the average house price was £293,000 in July, up 1.1% over the year. Wales stood at £215,000, with growth of 2.6%. Scotland's average was £196,000, up 2.3%. Northern Ireland, where the latest figure covers the second quarter of 2026, recorded an average of £202,000 and by far the fastest growth at 9.2%.

England has the highest average price but among the slowest growth, weighed down by London's decline. Northern Ireland combines a relatively low average price with the strongest growth. These differences underline how a single UK-wide number can obscure sharply contrasting local markets, and why the nation and region a buyer is in matters far more than the national headline.

How the figures are compiled

The UK House Price index is built from completed sales, which means it reflects transactions that have gone through rather than asking prices or agreed offers. That gives it authority as a record of what buyers have actually paid, but it also introduces a lag, because a sale can take months to complete and be registered.

The ONS flags that its first estimates are provisional. The July figures are based on sales volumes reflecting only around 47% of all transactions in Great Britain for the month, with estimates for the latest twelve months subject to revision as more sales are recorded. The newest single-month numbers should therefore be read as an early indication that may be revised, rather than a final tally.

What it means for buyers and owners

For prospective buyers, a slowing market can be a mixed blessing. Gentler price growth, and outright falls in places such as London, may improve affordability at the margin, but the average home still costs £273,000 and prices are not collapsing. For existing owners, the slowdown means the paper value of their property is rising more slowly than before, and in some regions is declining.

The verified position from the ONS is that UK house price growth has slowed again, to 1.4% in the year to July, with the average home at £273,000; that London prices fell 3.3% while the North East led at 4.9%; and that Northern Ireland saw the fastest national growth at 9.2%. Where prices head next is not something the current data can tell us, and any expectation of further slowing or a rebound is interpretation rather than established fact.

Why completed-sales data lag

The reliance on completed sales shapes how the house price index should be interpreted. Because a purchase can take several months to move from an accepted offer to a registered completion, the index reflects decisions made by buyers and sellers some time earlier. It is a rear-view mirror on the market rather than a live snapshot, which is one reason it can tell a different story from measures based on asking prices or Mortgage approvals that capture activity closer to the present.

That lag also means turning points show up in the official data later than in faster indicators. A shift in buyer sentiment today may not be visible in the index for months, until the affected transactions complete and are recorded. Readers comparing the ONS figures with more immediate private measures should keep that timing difference in mind rather than treating any divergence as a contradiction. The provisional element compounds the point: with the latest month's estimate based on only around 47% of transactions in Great Britain, and the most recent twelve months subject to revision, the newest figures are an early read that will firm up over time. None of this undermines the index's authority as a record of prices actually paid; it means the freshest numbers should be treated as indicative rather than final. That distinction between figures that will be revised and figures that are settled is worth holding on to whenever a monthly number makes the headlines.