UK House Price Statistics 2026 for Expats and Overseas Buyers

Who this page is for

This page is a reference, not a sales page. It brings together publicly available data on UK house prices in one place: the national average and how it is moving, the spread between the four UK nations and English regions, and how affordable UK property is relative to earnings.

It is aimed at British expats and overseas buyers weighing up where and when to buy, journalists and researchers, other advisers, and anyone who wants a sourced starting point rather than an anecdote. Every figure links to the original data or report it comes from. Where a figure has a date attached, that date is the period the data covers, not the date we last checked it.

The UK average house price and growth rate

The official measure of UK house prices is the UK House Price Index, produced jointly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry from completed property transactions, including cash purchases as well as mortgaged ones.

• The average UK house price was £271,000 in the 12 months to May 2026, up 2.7% year on year.
• That growth rate has slowed through 2026. Annual growth was a revised 3.9% to April 2026 and, before that, close to static earlier in the year.
• The official statistics attribute part of the slowdown to a base effect. Transactions surged ahead of the Stamp Duty Land Tax changes that took effect on 1 April 2025, and as that surge drops out of the rolling 12-month comparison, headline annual growth cools even where the underlying market is stable.

For context on how the non-resident Stamp Duty surcharge itself works, see our non-UK resident Stamp Duty guide and Stamp Duty calculator.

How prices vary by nation and region

National averages hide wide regional variation, which matters for overseas buyers who are not tied to a single UK location. On April 2026 UK House Price Index data:

• Wales averaged £212,000, up 3.5% on the year.
• Scotland averaged £192,000, up 2.8% on the year.
• Northern Ireland averaged £198,000 in Q1 2026, up 7.4% on the year, the strongest of the four UK nations.
• London remained by far the most expensive region, averaging £545,000, but was the only region to record an annual fall, down 1.2%.
• The North East of England had the strongest annual growth of any English region, up 9.9%.

Nationwide Building Society's own House Price Index, based on its own mortgage lending rather than the full range of completed sales, points the same way. Its June 2026 report put the UK average at £277,484, up 2.2% annually and accelerating from 1.7% in May. Across its 13 UK regions, every one recorded positive annual growth in Q2 2026, but only Northern Ireland exceeded 4% (up 8.6%). The North West and North of England both grew 3.9%, while the Outer South East was the weakest performer, up just 0.1%.

Both indices are legitimate, widely cited sources, but they use different methodologies (completed Land Registry sales versus Nationwide's own mortgage book) and are not directly comparable month to month. Taken together, they point to the same broad picture: modest UK-wide growth in 2026, with the North of England and Northern Ireland outperforming London and the South East.

Affordability: house prices against earnings

Price level alone does not say much about affordability without weighing it against local earnings. The ONS publishes exactly this ratio each year in its Housing affordability in England and Wales release, published 26 March 2026 and covering 2025.

• The median home in England cost £300,000 in 2025, 7.6 times median full-time earnings of £39,300.
• The ONS treats an area as affordable where average homes cost up to 5 times average local earnings, its own stated affordability threshold. England as a whole sits well above that line.
• London is the most stretched region, with a house-price-to-earnings ratio of 9.5.
• Affordability has eased slightly since the 2021 peak. Since then, median prices have risen around 5% cumulatively while earnings have risen around 25%, narrowing the gap without closing it.

For buyers weighing up where in the UK to purchase, the affordability gap between London and the wider UK is one of the clearest statistics available, and it lines up with the regional growth pattern above: more of the price growth in 2026 has come from regions starting from a lower, more affordable base.

A note on new build data

Readers comparing new build against existing property prices should know that the ONS has, for now, paused publishing a separate new build versus existing resold property price split within the UK House Price Index. It cites insufficient verified new build transaction volume in the most recent months of data to produce a reliable result, since new build sales typically take longer to register than resales. We have left this figure out of the roundup above rather than estimate it, in line with keeping every figure on this page traceable to a named public source.

Sources

• GOV.UK / ONS / HM Land Registry — UK House Price Index summary: May 2026
• GOV.UK — UK House Price Index for April 2026
• Office for National Statistics — Private rent and house prices, UK: May 2026
• Nationwide Building Society — House Price Index reports
• Office for National Statistics — Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2025

This page is for general information only and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Figures are third-party data compiled by UK Mortgages Worldwide. We do not control or guarantee their ongoing accuracy, and each source may revise its own figures over time. Always check the original source for the latest published data before relying on a specific number.

Common questions