The average house price in the UK is £264,300 as of April 2024 (published in May 2024).
Property prices have remained the same month on month and have fallen by 0.1% (£210) compared to a year ago.
Key figures
Average house price in February 2024 | Average house price in March 2024 | Average house price in April 2024 | Year-on-year change (£) | Year-on-year change (%) | |
All property | £263,600 | £264,300 | £264,300 | -£210 | -0.1% |
Detached houses | £446,400 | £445,800 | £447,300 | -£2,450 | -0.5% |
Flats | £190,700 | £190,400 | £190,800 | -£1,200 | -0.6% |
Semi-detached houses | £269,600 | £269,100 | £270,100 | +£1,500 | +0.6% |
Terraced houses | £233,000 | £233,700 | £233,600 | +£2,000 | +0.9% |
The graph shows how the UK’s average house price has changed in the last 10 years.
Annual inflation rate helps keep house prices broadly unchanged over the last year
The pace of annual price inflation has improved modestly over the last 3 months, with our latest House Price Index showing that house prices remained mostly unchanged in the year to April 2024, falling by -0.1%.
There remains a clear divide between continued small annual price falls across southern England and the rest of the UK, where house prices are posting modest gains.
This is best seen at a city-level, where inflation ranges from a low of -3% in Ipswich to a high of 3% in Belfast. There is a broadly equal split between cities with rising and falling house prices.
Higher mortgage rates contribute to this variation, with levels of affordability and demand having a big impact on prices. Cities in coastal areas – and those that attracted an inflow of demand over the pandemic in the ‘race for space’ – are registering above-average price falls, as demand weakens, and these one-off pandemic factors fade.
We expect the current variation in house price inflation to continue over 2024 as incomes and house prices realign with the greatest adjustment across London and southern England.
Highest numbers of homes for sale in last 8 years
As sellers return to the market in growing numbers, there are more homes for sale than at any point in the last eight years. The average agent has 31 homes for sale, up 20% on this time last year.
Following a shortage in the pandemic, the supply of 3 and 4-bed family homes has rapidly increased leading in turn to a large increase in the to the value of homes for sale. There are currently £230bn worth of housing on the market, 25% higher than a year ago.
Many existing homeowners delayed moving decisions in the second half of last year, due to concerns about the impact of higher borrowing costs on house prices and buyer demand. The recent decline in mortgage rates, together with rising sales volumes and firmer pricing, has brought more sellers back into the market, many of whom are also buyers.
Most homes currently for sale are new-to-market. But, as demand for homes fell over the second half of the year as mortgage rates jumped higher, it's important to note that 31% of homes currently available for sale were also listed in 2023 but failed to find a buyer.
Two-fifths (43%) of these homes have had their asking price cut by more than 5% to attract demand. This highlights the importance of correctly pricing your home from the outset, rather than aiming too high and not attracting buyers.
Sales are up but not as much as new supply
Sales volumes are continuing to recover back towards the long-run average., with the number of homes achieving a sale agreed 13% higher than this time last year. Sales agreed have grown 22% across the North East but are up by just 1% in Wales.
The other notable trend is that the number of homes for sale has generally grown faster than the increase in sales agreed. This replenishes the supply of homes for sale and means more choice for buyers.
The South West of England has recorded a 33% increase in homes for sale compared to last year, with an above-average increase in the expansion in 4-bed homes for sale.
Tax changes for holiday lets and the prospect of double council tax for second homes are likely to be encouraging some owners to sell. This exacerbates the expansion in homes for sale across the South West, which has the highest concentration of holiday homes.
Will the General Election have an impact?
The announcement of the general election on 4th July 2024 has come earlier than many expected. Elections normally lead to increased uncertainty and some stalling in market activity.
There are currently 392,000 homes in the sales pipeline working their way through to completion over 2024. This is 3% higher than this time last year and we don’t expect to see buyers already in the process of progressing to sales completions pulling out.
The desire to move remains for many households, first- time buyers in particular, who are looking to escape the rapid growth in rents in the private rented sector. Similar is true of upsizers, many of whom delayed moving last year when mortgage rates moved higher.
The election announcement is likely to stall the pace at which new sales are being agreed in the coming weeks, as we run up to the start of the summer slowdown.
Most buyers well into the home buying process close to agreeing a sale will ideally want to push through and agree sales now. Those who are earlier in the process may look to delay decisions until the autumn after the election is over.
Overall, I don’t see the election having as big an impact as in previous years, particularly as there is not a huge divide in policy between the two main parties.
There are also few specifics on housing, other than a focus on reforming the private rental sector and boosting housing supply. However, sales completions over 2024 may now fall slightly short of the 1.1m we expected for 2024.
What businesses and landlords will want to see from all political parties are concrete plans for how we can boost housing supply across all tenures, while getting the right reforms into the private rented sector to ensure we maintain supply while giving renters more protections.
Rising supply set to keep house price inflation in check
The growth in available supply is welcome news. After several years where lack of supply limited sales volumes and pushed up house prices, a return to greater availability will support the growth in sales.
However, I expect this expansion in supply to keep house price inflation in check over the remainder of 2024.
Our latest index finds that annual UK house price inflation remains slightly negative at -0.1%. There has been an increase in house price inflation over the last quarter (+0.4%) in response to more sales and firmer pricing, but this quarterly growth rate has slowed over the last month, so I expect UK house price inflation to be flat over 2024 as a whole.
Download the Zoopla House Price Index: May 2024 (PDF, 417kB)
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About our House Price Index
The Zoopla House Price Index (HPI) is a repeat sales-based price index, using sold prices, mortgage valuations and data for recently agreed sales. The index uses more input data than any other and is designed to accurately track the change in pricing for UK housing. It’s a revisionary index and non-seasonally adjusted.
The HPI for May 2024 uses the most recent full data available up to April 2024. We revise previous data where needed to ensure the most accurate representation of the market at any given time.