DATA: ONS reported CPI rose by 3.4% in year to May 2025
They report “The largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates came from transport; the largest, partially offsetting, upward contributions came from food, and furniture and household goods”. They also note that last month’s figure of 3.5% was overstated due to “an error in the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) component”.
DATA: Rightmove reported asking prices rose 0.8% in year to Jun 2025
They report(PDF) the unseasonally adjusted 0.3% monthly fall was “an unusual dip for June, as new sellers lower their price expectations amid decade-high competition to secure buyers”. They also report “The higher-priced southern regions and the capital have seen larger price drops this month, being more affected by higher stamp duty charges, and seeing greater increases in available homes for sale”.
DATA: ONS/HMLR reported UK house prices rose 3.5% in year to Apr 2025
The annual rate reported for April was half the 7.0% reported for the previous month following the end of the stamp duty holiday. Across English regions, the ONS report house prices rose fastest in the North East (6.4%) and slowest in the South West (0.9%) in the year to April 2025.
DATA: ONS reported UK private rents rose by 7.0% in year to May 2025
They report “Private rents annual inflation in England was highest in the North East (9.7%) and lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber (3.7%) in the 12 months to May 2025”.
DATA: ONS reported £1.05bn in SDLT receipts in May 2025
Total stamp duty land tax receipts, covering both residential and commercial property, were 30% lower than the previous month (non-seasonally adjusted) and 8% lower than the same month last year as the fall in residential transactions following the end of the stamp duty holiday fed through into lower tax receipts.
DATA: MHCLG published indicators of new supply data for Q1 2025
See Chart of the Week for more detail.
DATA: MHCLG published planning applications in England for Q1 2025
They report in Q1 2025 “9,200 decisions were made on applications for residential developments, of which 7,000 (76%) were granted” and “The number of residential decisions made was down 18% from the same quarter a year earlier, with the number granted down 11% from the same quarter a year earlier”. They also report “The latest provisional figures show that permission for 235,000 homes was given in the year to March 2025” and this was 3% lower than for the year to March 2024.
DATA: UK Statistics Authority recommended a census in 2031
DATA: OSR suspended accreditation for Wealth and Assets Survey
“The decision was prompted after a comprehensive review by OSR found that declining response rates and a lack of investment have significantly impacted the quality of the survey data, which measures the financial wellbeing of households across Great Britain”.
DATA: UK Finance published interest-only mortgage data
They report “There were 541,000 pure interest-only homeowner mortgages outstanding at the end of 2024, 18.5 per cent fewer than in 2023” and “174,000 partial interest-only (part and part) homeowner mortgages outstanding at the end of 2024, 13.0 per cent fewer than in 2023”. FCA data shows non-regulated mortgages are more likely to be interest only.
DATA: Financial Market Expectations For BoE’s Bank Rate
The chart provides a summary for the expected future level of Bank Rate based on daily data. The One Year figure was 3.55% on the 19th Jun compared to 3.51% on the 11th Jun.
DATA: New Build Energy Performance Certificates, England
This chart provides a summary of the number of EPCs on new build properties, a useful leading indicator for net additions. The 52-week rolling total was 207,985 for the week commencing 9th Jun, up slightly from 207,475 the previous week.
POLICY: MHCLG and HMT launched National Housing Bank
“The National Housing Bank, a subsidiary of Homes England, will be publicly owned and backed with £16 billion of financial capacity, on top of £6bn of existing finance to be allocated this Parliament, in order to accelerate housebuilding and leverage in £53 billion of additional private investment, creating jobs and delivering over 500,000 new homes”.
POLICY: MHCLG removed local connection rules for social housing
They announce “Care leavers under 25 and victims of domestic abuse to benefit from removal of local connection rules” when accessing social housing.
POLICY: BoE MPC held Bank Rate at 4.25%
“At its meeting ending on 18 June 2025, the MPC voted by a majority of 6–3 to maintain Bank Rate at 4.25%. Three members preferred to reduce Bank Rate by 0.25 percentage points, to 4%”.
REPORT: BoE published Agents’ summary of business conditions
On the housing market, they report “Although buyers are taking longer to make a decision to purchase, demand seems to be firming up and house prices are growing by mid-single digits in percentage terms. The exception is London and the south where market sentiment remains gloomy, demand is weak and there is some evidence of falling prices.”
REPORT: Scottish Gov published Future Trends for Scotland
The report “sets out 60 trends that are likely to be important to Scotland over the next 10-to-20 years”. On housing, they note “Housing affordability is a significant challenge, especially for low-income households renting privately”.
REPORT: OVfM reported on procuring short-term accommodation
The Office for Value for Money concluded that “short termism and competition between different parts of the public sector has pushed up prices, and the lack of coordination and integration has worsened outcomes and has led to inefficient use of existing capacity. The number of people in short-term residential accommodation has risen significantly over recent years, and costs have risen even more”.
REPORT: RSH published stakeholder survey results, 2024-2025
The Regulator of Social Housing found “Over 80% of respondents agree RSH’s new approach to consumer regulation will lead to improved outcomes for tenants, with just 3% disagreeing”.
REPORT: Savills published Spotlight on Planning
They report “Despite high levels of activity ‘on the ground’, changes to planning policy will take time to be reflected in Local Plans and the number of consents flowing through the system”. They also report “Clear signals are already being sent through the appeals process, as planning inspectors embrace the revised NPPF” and “Combined with further reform, this has the potential to offer an unprecedented opportunity for acquiring and progressing sites over the next few years”.
REPORT: LSE CASE reported on debt, ethnicity and deprivation in London
They report “The findings reveal stark inequalities in over-indebtedness across London” and “Certain boroughs and ethnic minority groups, particularly in the most deprived areas, face disproportionately higher over-indebtedness risks”.
REPORT: Propertymark published Housing Insight Report for April 2025
They report “The average number of new prospective buyers registered saw a dip to an average of 87 per member branch in April 2025” while “The average number of sales agreed per member branch saw a slight dip to 8 in April 2025”.
CORPORATE: Berkeley published Final Results
They report “The value of underlying net sale reservations for the year was 5% ahead of FY24, weighted slightly to the second half” but “around 30% lower than FY23” and “build costs have remained stable over the course of the year”. They also report “The gross margin percentage is 26.6% (2024: 26.2%)” and “The operating margin is 20.1% (2024: 19.5%)”.
Chart of the Week
Today MHCLG published their latest indicators of new supply for Q1 2025. It includes estimates for net additional dwellings (199,300 for 2024-25) and the latest building control housebuilding data. I’ve regularly highlighted the issues with the building control data undercounting new build completions compared to the more comprehensive data published as part of the Net Additional Dwellings (NAD) release – by 38,200 in 2023/24. However, the building control data is still useful despite this undercount as, thanks to changes in the methodology , it has been a useful leading indicator for the NAD completions data. As we can see from the chart below, projecting the building control data forward from Q1 2017 provides a useful leading indicator for the NAD data. However, the result suggests that new building completions in 2024/25 fell to 189,300 – back to 2017 levels.
