🇬🇧 UK Housing Market Slows After Strong Start to 2025

🇬🇧 UK Housing Market Slows After Strong Start to 2025

Following a surge in Q1—driven by temporary stamp duty relief—the UK property market is showing early signs of cooling. The incentive ended on April 1, and both prices and demand softened immediately afterward.

📉 Average house prices fell by 0.6% in April, marking the sharpest monthly decline since August 2023. Annual price growth eased to 3.4%, down from nearly 4%.

🏡 While asking prices reached a record high of £380,000, the pace of growth was the weakest for a spring period in nearly a decade.

🔍 Key Market Trends:

• Buyer demand dropped ~4% year-on-year in April, as many rushed to close purchases before the tax change.

• Housing supply has risen sharply, reaching a 10-year high in the number of homes listed for sale.

Encouragingly, buyer activity appeared to rebound in early May, suggesting that April’s dip may have been temporary.

📈 Outlook for 2025: Analysts expect prices to rise moderately this year, but at a much slower pace than the rapid increases seen during the pandemic era, with higher mortgage rates and reduced incentives continuing to weigh on momentum.