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ONS April UK house price index jumps 3.8% on base effect as government unveils AI planning tools

Week ending 18 June 2026 · published 18 June 2026

ONS April 2026 reading

The Office for National Statistics released its UK House Price Index for April 2026 on 17 June, with an average UK price of £270,000 and a 12-month rate of plus 3.8 per cent, up from a revised 0.0 per cent in March. The ONS attributes the swing largely to a base effect from the stamp duty land tax changes of 1 April 2025. The next ONS Private Rent and House Prices UK release is scheduled for 22 July 2026.

By country, England averaged £291,000 (plus 3.9 per cent year-on-year), Wales £212,000 (plus 3.5 per cent), Scotland £192,000 (plus 2.8 per cent) and Northern Ireland £198,000 (plus 7.4 per cent, Q1 vs Q1 2025). The English regional spread is wide: the North East recorded plus 9.9 per cent year-on-year, up from minus 0.9 per cent in March, while London fell minus 2.1 per cent, the ninth consecutive month of annual decline, despite the largest monthly rise of any English region at plus 1.9 per cent.

Mortgage rates and Bank Rate

The average two-year fixed mortgage rate stood at 5.18 per cent in May 2026, down from 5.42 per cent the prior month, per the Rightmove daily mortgage tracker drawing on Podium Solutions data covering around 95 per cent of lending. Halifax's 5 June commentary noted recent rate cuts had not fully offset higher inflation expectations.

The Monetary Policy Committee held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent at its meeting on 18 June, voting seven to two to keep rates unchanged, with the two dissenting members favouring a 0.25 percentage point rise; the next decision is due on 17 September. CPI inflation was 2.8 per cent in May 2026, above the Bank's 2 per cent target.

Rents

ONS Private Index of Private Rents, 12 months to May 2026: average UK monthly rent £1,383, up 3.3 per cent year-on-year, slowing from 3.5 per cent in the prior reading. England averaged £1,442 (plus 3.4 per cent), Wales £836 (plus 4.7 per cent), Scotland £1,009 (plus 1.0 per cent, the lowest in almost a decade) and Northern Ireland £876 (plus 3.3 per cent for the 12 months to March 2026). The North East had the highest English rent inflation at plus 5.9 per cent, down from 6.5 per cent in April; London the lowest at plus 2.0 per cent.

Housing supply and policy

Rightmove reported the stock of homes for sale in May 2026 is at its highest for the time of year since 2015, with almost a third of listings seeing price reductions. Homes that did not require a reduction sold in 36 days on average; those that did took 127 days. A 3 June Cambridge East land acquisition by Homes England, the National Housing Bank and Hill Group unlocks more than 10,000 new homes and 9,000 jobs.

MHCLG unveiled two new AI tools on 16 June in support of the 1.5 million homes target: a prototype planning-application tool being tested in three English counties aimed at halving decision times for routine applications, and a digitisation tool that converts decades of historic planning records in minutes, now available to every council in England. Communities Secretary Steve Reed announced a £61 million Community Right to Buy Fund and a wider £301 million high-streets package the same day. On 11 June, Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook wrote to Torbay Council over its local plan, part of a pattern of central-government call-ins on planning that began with the 4 June challenge to Enfield Council's New Town refusal.

Sources

We report what the data shows — no forecasts, no investment advice. For local detail, see house prices by area and the monthly market report.