Britain’s housing market slowed in November in both annual and monthly terms in the run-up to the government’s budget, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Friday.
Halifax said house prices were flat in November, down from 0.5% growth in October.
Compared to a year ago, house price growth slowed to 0.7% from an annual increase of 1.9% in October, the weakest rate since March 2024.
The lender said the annual slowdown largely reflected the impact of stronger house price growth a year ago.
“Annual growth has slowed to +0.7%, the weakest rate since March 2024, though this largely reflects the base effect of much stronger price growth this time last year,” Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said.
“Even with the changes to Stamp Duty back in spring and some uncertainty ahead of the Autumn Budget, property values have remained steady.”
Some other measures of Britain’s housing market have suggested a slowing in house price growth which has been attributed to caution among homebuyers ahead of finance minister Rachel Reeves’ November 26 budget.
Figures from rival mortgage lender Nationwide published on Tuesday showed that prices rose by 0.3% in November, and annual house price growth slowed to 1.8%.
Bryden said affordability was the strongest since 2015, and expected property prices to grow gradually next year, supported by steady activity and interest rate cuts by the Bank of England.
The BoE is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 3.75% in December.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla）
