British house prices will stagnate in November, says Halifax

The British housing market slowed both year-on-year and month-on-month in November in the run-up to the government budget, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Friday.Halifax said home 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 home price growth a year ago.

“Annual growth has slowed to +0.7%, the weakest rate since March 2024, although this largely reflects the base effect of much stronger price growth this time last year,” said Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax.

“Even with the stamp duty changes in the spring and some uncertainty ahead of the autumn budget, property values ​​have remained stable.”

Some other measures of the UK housing market point to a slowdown in house price growth, attributed to caution among homebuyers ahead of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ November 26 budget. Figures from rival mortgage lender Nationwide published on Tuesday show prices rose 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 rise gradually next year, supported by steady activity and interest rates. cuts by the Bank of England.

The BoE is widely expected to cut borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 3.75% in December.