Average UK house price exceeds £260,000 for first time
The average British house price has topped £260,000 for the first time, according to the UK’s biggest building society, after soaring by almost £30,000 over the past 12 months.
Nationwide said the typical property value reached £260,230 in February – £29,162 higher than a year earlier – the biggest annual increase in cash terms that its monthly index has recorded in more than 30 years of its existence.
The price of a typical home is now about a fifth higher than it was in February 2020, shortly before the coronavirus lockdowns started in the UK, Nationwide said. This equates to a cash increase of £44,140.
As house price growth has outpaced wage increases, and housing affordability has become stretched, the price of a typical home sits at about 6.7 times average earnings, up from a ratio of 5.8 in 2019, according to Nationwide.
Annual UK house price growth accelerated to 12.6% in February 2022, up from 11.2% in January and the strongest pace since June last year. Prices were up by 1.7% month on month. After taking account of seasonal effects, that was the seventh consecutive monthly increase.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The price of a typical home is now £44,138 (20%) higher than in February 2020 – the month before the pandemic struck the UK.”
Gardner said housing market activity has remained robust in recent months, with mortgage approvals continuing to run above pre-pandemic levels at the start of the year.
He said: “A combination of robust demand and limited stock of homes on the market has kept upward pressure on prices.
“The continued buoyancy of the housing market is a little surprising, given the mounting pressure on household budgets from rising inflation, which reached a 30-year high of 5.5% in
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