UK Property Market Report: July 2026 — A Flat Month on the Surface, a Divided Market Underneath
The headline numbers
Nationwide's July index, published on 31 July, put the average UK house price at £277,542 — up 0.1% on the month, the first monthly rise in three months, with annual growth slowing to 1.8% from 2.2% in June.
If you're planning to sell, you can list your home on Rightmove yourself, and our estate agent fee calculator shows what an agent would charge at today's prices.
Lloyds (the index formerly known as Halifax, renamed in July) told a similar story for June: prices up 0.2% on the month and just 0.6% over the year, with its average at £299,330.
The official UK House Price Index — which measures completed sales rather than mortgage approvals, and therefore lags a couple of months — showed annual growth of 2.7% in the year to May, at an average of £271,000, down sharply from 3.9% in April. That drop is largely a statistical base effect from last year's stamp duty changes rather than a sudden deterioration: this time last year, prices were spiking as buyers rushed to complete.
Three indices, one message: national prices are broadly flat, drifting up at less than the rate of inflation. In real terms, UK housing got slightly cheaper this summer.
Why the market is treading water
Nationwide's chief economist Robert Gardner put it plainly: market activity and house prices have remained soft, reflecting the uncertain economic backdrop — with geopolitical tensions pushing up energy prices and market interest rates, and financial-market expectations for Bank Rate unusually volatile.
The plumbing of the market backs that up:
- Mortgage approvals — the best forward indicator of sales — came in at 58,200 in June, up slightly on May but still below the six-month average.
- Bank Rate has been held at 3.75%, and mortgage pricing has drifted up in recent weeks rather than down.
- Transactions, though, are healthier than the price data suggests: HMRC recorded 98,000 residential transactions in May, 16.6% higher than a year earlier. Homes are selling — at realistic prices.
That last pairing is the single most important fact in this report for anyone selling: volume is up while prices are flat. Buyers are active, but they are price-disciplined. Correctly priced homes are transacting; optimistically priced ones are sitting.
Mortgage rates and buyer demand
Borrowing costs explain much of the caution. Average two-year fixed rates climbed to around 5% through March and April amid global uncertainty and rising energy prices, before easing back to roughly 4.6% by the start of July (Savills, citing Nationwide data). They remain higher than at the start of the year, and the pipeline shows it — approvals for house purchase in May were the weakest since November 2023 before June's modest recovery.
Demand is thinner as a result. Zoopla's index has buyer enquiries around 15% lower than a year ago and sales agreed down 7%, with sales agreed net of fall-throughs running roughly 13% below the pre-pandemic average in June. Unsold stock is building, so buyers have choice — and the homes priced for last year's market are the ones sitting. The encouraging signal is that the gap between buyer and seller price expectations is finally narrowing, with more homes priced correctly from day one.
Looking ahead: with inflation pressure easing, markets expect the Bank of England to hold or cut rather than raise, which should keep mortgage pricing drifting down and support a firmer autumn. Most forecasters still expect low single-digit price growth for 2026 as a whole — but the buyers who show up will be price-aware and mortgage-constrained.
The regional divide keeps widening
The national average is increasingly a fiction that nobody lives in. Nationwide's Q2 regional data shows:
| Region | Annual price growth |
|---|---|
| Northern Ireland | +8.6% — the UK's runaway leader |
| Northern England (general trend) | Outpacing the south |
| Outer South East | +0.1% — the weakest region |
| London (official HPI, to May) | −3.7% — outright falls |
The gap between north and south has narrowed to its lowest level since 2013: the average northern English home now costs almost 58% of the average southern one, up from around 48% in 2017. Money is flowing to where housing is still affordable.
Property type tells the same story of a selective market: in England, semi-detached houses grew 4.1% over the year — the strongest of any type — while flats fell 2.2%. Family houses with space are in demand; the flat market, particularly in London, remains the weak spot.
What this means if you're selling
1. Price to the market you're in, not the market two years ago. With national growth below 2% and buyers comparing every listing against realistic competition, the days of "price high and wait" are over — the transaction data shows buyers rewarding sharp pricing with quick sales, and punishing optimism with silence. If your listing has had strong viewing figures but few enquiries for more than a month, the market has given you its answer.
2. Your region is your market. A seller in Newcastle and a seller in Surrey are in different countries, statistically. Northern and Northern Irish sellers have genuine pricing power; sellers in London and the Outer South East should assume buyers expect negotiation and build that into their launch price.
3. Semis and family houses are the sweet spot. If you're selling a three-bed semi, you own the best-performing asset class in England this year. If you're selling a flat, presentation and pricing matter doubly.
4. The autumn window is the one to aim for. August is traditionally quiet; September brings the school-year surge of serious family buyers. A listing launched now, priced correctly, is positioned to catch that wave — and every price adjustment on Rightmove re-alerts buyers with matching saved searches, effectively relaunching your marketing for free.
5. Watch 19 August. The June official House Price Index lands then, with the full regional breakdown — we'll publish our regional winners-and-losers analysis the same week.
The fee arithmetic hasn't changed
Whatever the market does, the maths of selling stays the same. The average UK estate agency fee is around 1.42% including VAT — roughly £3,940 on the current Nationwide average price of £277,542. Selling with OffAgent costs £99 per month with no commission. In a flat market where every pound of equity matters, the saving is the one number in this report entirely within your control.
Sources: Nationwide House Price Index, July 2026 (31 July 2026); Lloyds House Price Index, June 2026; ONS Private Rent and House Prices UK, July 2026 bulletin (house prices to May 2026); HM Land Registry UK HPI, May 2026; HMRC UK Property Transactions Statistics; Bank of England Money and Credit, June 2026. Figures are the latest available at publication and subject to revision.