The Nationwide House Price Index has been released for 2024. The report said that prices had ended the year on a “strong footing”.
Their regional house price indices for Q4 (the three months to December) indicated that all regions and nations saw price rises over 2024. Overall across the UK house prices were up 3.6% to £268,518.
Wales was mid-table on the list – up 2.7% to £207,187.
The index said: “Northern Ireland was the best performing area for the second year running, with prices up 7.1% over the year. Scotland recorded a 4.4% increase in 2024, whilst Wales saw a 2.7% year-on-year rise.
“Across England overall, prices were up 3.1%, compared with Q4 2024. There was a clear north-south divide in house price performance in 2024 as Northern England (comprising North, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber, East Midlands and West Midlands) continued to outperform southern England, with prices up 4.9% year on year. The North was the best performing English region, with prices up 5.9% year on year.”
On a monthly basis, UK average prices were up 4.7% in December, compared with the same month in 2023.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “UK house prices ended 2024 on a strong footing, up 4.7% compared with December 2023, though prices were still just below the all-time high recorded in summer 2022. House prices increased by 0.7% month on month, after taking account of seasonal effects, following a 1.2% rise in November.
“Mortgage market activity and house prices proved surprisingly resilient in 2024 given the ongoing affordability challenges facing potential buyers. At the start of the year, house prices remained high relative to average earnings, which meant that the deposit hurdle remained high for prospective first-time buyers. This is a challenge that had been made worse by record rates of rental growth in recent years, which has hampered the ability of many in the private rented sector to save.
“Moreover, for many of those with sufficient savings for a deposit, meeting monthly payments was a stretch because borrowing costs remained well above those prevailing in the aftermath of the pandemic. For example, a typical mortgage rate for someone with a 25 per cent deposit hovered around 4.5% for much of the year, three times the 1.5% prevailing in late 2021, before the Bank of England started to raise the Bank Rate.
“As a result, it was encouraging that activity levels in the housing market increased over the course of 2024 with the number of mortgages approved for house purchase each month rising above pre-pandemic levels towards the end of the year.”
Full Table:
|
Region |
Average price (Q4 2024) |
Annual % chg this quarter |
Annual % chg last quarter |
|
N Ireland |
£197,696 |
7.1% |
8.6% |
|
North |
£164,696 |
5.9% |
3.2% |
|
North West |
£218,012 |
5.5% |
5.0% |
|
West Midlands |
£245,173 |
4.7% |
1.0% |
|
East Midlands |
£235,877 |
4.4% |
1.8% |
|
Yorks & The H |
£207,373 |
4.4% |
4.3% |
|
Scotland |
£187,016 |
4.4% |
4.3% |
|
South West |
£306,730 |
2.7% |
0.6% |
|
Wales |
£207,187 |
2.7% |
2.5% |
|
Outer Met |
£422,372 |
2.4% |
1.9% |
|
Outer S East |
£336,224 |
2.3% |
0.6% |
|
London |
£525,535 |
2.0% |
2.0% |
|
East Anglia |
£272,152 |
0.5% |
-0.8% |
|
UK |
£268,518 |
3.6% |
2.5% |
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