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Lender indices diverge as Nationwide reports 2.2 per cent annual growth and Halifax holds at 0.5 per cent

Week ending 2 July 2026 · published 2 July 2026

Lender indices diverge further

Nationwide published its June 2026 house-price index on 1 July, reporting annual UK house-price growth of 2.2 per cent, up from 1.7 per cent in May. No typical-property value was printed on the landing-page summary. Northern Ireland was the best-performing region, with prices up 8.6 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, while the Outer South East was weakest at 0.1 per cent. The reading widens the gap with Halifax, which recorded plus 0.5 per cent year-on-year for May on 5 June; the two lender-based indices typically track within one percentage point, so a 1.7 percentage point gap is the widest in the period captured. The next Halifax release is scheduled for 7 July, the next Rightmove for 20 July and the next ONS UK House Price Index for 22 July.

Rightmove and ONS readings

Rightmove reported on 15 June that the average asking price of newly-listed UK homes fell 0.6 per cent month-on-month in June to 376,191 pounds, the biggest June drop in fourteen years, leaving prices 0.5 per cent below a year earlier. The stock of homes for sale is at its highest level for the time of year on Rightmove's records, with almost a third of listings seeing price reductions; homes that did not require a reduction sold in 36 days on average compared with 127 days for those that did. The ONS UK House Price Index for April 2026, published 17 June, recorded an average UK price of 270,000 pounds and a 12-month rate of plus 3.8 per cent, a jump from a revised 0.0 per cent in March largely attributed to a base effect from the stamp duty land tax changes of 1 April 2025. The three indices measure different things — asking prices, mortgage-approval valuations and Land Registry transactions — so the levels differ structurally.

Mortgages, Bank Rate and household costs

The Rightmove daily mortgage tracker recorded the average two-year fixed mortgage rate at 5.07 per cent in June 2026, down from 5.18 per cent in May and reducing the average monthly mortgage payment by around 30 pounds. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent at the 18 June MPC meeting, by a 7-2 vote with Megan Greene and Huw Pill voting for a 0.25 percentage-point rise to 4 per cent, citing concerns about second-round inflation effects. The next MPC decision is due on 30 July 2026. CPI inflation was 2.8 per cent in May 2026, unchanged from April and down from 3.3 per cent in March. The Ofgem energy price cap rises by 221 pounds (13.5 per cent) to 1,862 pounds for the July to September 2026 quarter, a near-term household-affordability headwind that partly offsets the mortgage-rate easing.

Rents, supply and policy

The ONS Price Index of Private Rents for the 12 months to May 2026 recorded an average UK monthly private rent of 1,383 pounds, with annual growth of 3.3 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to April. Scotland recorded the lowest regional rate at plus 1.0 per cent, the lowest in almost a decade. Homes England's 2025/26 housebuilding statistics, published 25 June, reported 42,433 housing starts and 40,332 completions, with affordable homes accounting for 32,243 of completions, or 80 per cent of the total. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government issued further local-plan intervention letters to the City of London Corporation on 26 June and to Stockport Council on 1 July, continuing a pattern of central-government call-ins on local planning that began with the 11 June letter to Torbay Council.

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.