DATA: Nationwide reported UK house prices rose 1.8% in year to Nov 2025
They report the annual rate slowed from 2.4% the previous month as faster growth towards the end of last year falls out of the twelve-month period.
DATA: Halifax reported UK house prices rose 0.7% in year to Nov 2025
They report(PDF) house prices were unchanged in November and the annual rate slowed from 1.9% the previous month. As with the Nationwide index, they also report “Slower rate of annual inflation largely reflects the impact of stronger growth a year ago”.
DATA: BoE reported 65,018 approvals for purchase in Oct 2025
The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase were 1.0% lower than the previous month and 4.9% lower than the same month last year. They were just 2% lower than the pre-pandemic average. Approvals for remortgaging were 2.5% higher than last year.
DATA: BoE published quoted mortgage rate data for Nov 2025
The data for quoted mortgage products shows the average two-year fixed-rate at 75% loan-to-value fell to 4.06%, from 4.20% the previous month. The revert-to-rate was unchanged at 6.81%.
DATA: BoE published effective mortgage rate data for Oct 2025
They report the average rate on new advances (both purchase and remortgage) was 4.18%, down slightly from the 4.20% the previous month. The average rate on outstanding balances was 3.89%, again slightly lower than the 3.90% the previous month.
DATA: Homes England published housebuilding stats for Apr-Sep 2025
They report “In the 6-month period 1 April to 30 September 2025 15,581 housing starts on site and 13,500 housing completions were delivered through programmes managed by Homes England in England”. These figures exclude London. The number of starts were 3.2% lower than the same period last year while completions were 8.3% lower.
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 3.34% on the 3rd Dec compared to 3.35% on the 26th Nov.
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 207,789 for the week commencing 24th Nov, lower than the 208,217 total for the previous week.
POLICY: Government launched Child Poverty Strategy
The strategy aims to “lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030” including ending the “unlawful placement of families in Bed and Breakfasts beyond the six-week limit” and “A new legal duty will also be introduced for councils to notify schools, health visitors, and GPs when a child is placed in temporary accommodation, so no child is left without support”.
POLICY: MHCLG announced 30-year funding package for mayoral areas
They report “Six regions set to get their own mayors through devolution will share almost £200 million every year for three decades” and “Ministers are also considering moving some inaugural elections to 2028 so areas can finish reorganising their councils and help mayors hit the ground running”.
POLICY: Scottish Government launched empty homes portal
The online portal is intended to bring empty homes “together with prospective buyers or developers with the aim of facilitating more properties to be used as homes again”. There were no properties available when I checked earlier.
REPORT: BoE published Financial Stability Report Dec 2025
They report “Lenders have been adjusting their behaviours following the clarification of the FCA Mortgage Conduct of Business (MCOB) rules and the changes in the FPC recommendation for the loan to income flow limit, but the full impact of these policy changes is still passing through to the mortgage market”. They also report “The share of high LTI lending increased to 9.5% in Q3, in line with Q1 and up from 7.6% in Q2, which was depressed by the end of the stamp duty land tax holiday”.
REPORT: MHCLG published English Housing Survey 2024/25 report
The headline report provides “headline findings on household demographics and resilience” though there are some concerns about the quality of the survey since the pandemic. See Chart of the Week for more detail.
REPORT: MHCLG reported on private landlord business models
The research, based on the 2024 Private Landlord Survey “report[s] on the practices, portfolios and interests of private landlords in England, and how these differ based on landlords’ business models”. They report “Corporate landlords (82%) and moderate-scale business and investor landlords (81%) reported aligning the rent in their most recent tenancy with market rates more often than some of the smaller landlords (small-scale retired 67%, small-scale investor for retirement 69%)”.
REPORT: MHCLG reported on private rented tenants’ experiences
They report “most private renters (57%) reported positive experiences in the rental sector, while fewer (18%) reported negative experiences”. They also report “A substantial majority of renters (77%) reported at least one issue with their current property, with damp or mould being most common (44%). Despite high reporting rates to landlords and agents of issues (77-94% depending on issue type), satisfaction with resolutions was typically low. Fear of repercussions was the primary barrier to raising complaints, with 27% concerned about rent increases and 22% worried about eviction.”
REPORT: UK Finance published Household Finance Review
They report “Affordability has levelled off but remains very tight” for mortgage repayments and “Refinancing [is] finally showing growth”.
REPORT: London Assembly reported on data centres delaying housing
The report “highlights the increasing pressure on London’s electricity grid, and the need to plan for both digital infrastructure and new homes, particularly in areas like West London where capacity has been stretched to its limits”.
REPORT: Demos reported on new towns and the citizenship opportunity
They suggest the new towns programme offers an opportunity to “Not only to accelerate housing supply and support economic growth, but to redefine the relationship between people and place”.
REPORT: Centre for Cities reported on London’s suburban high streets
They report “London’s suburban high streets tend to perform relatively well and have fewer empty shops than most of the UK’s city centres” but “Some of London’s suburban high streets may require a targeted intervention to reduce their vacancy rates”.
REPORT: JRF published Poverty in Northern Ireland 2025
They report progress in reducing poverty over the last fifteen years but report 17% of the population and 24% of children living in poverty. They also report that “Northern Ireland remains especially vulnerable to poverty because of lower incomes and limited financial resilience”.
REPORT: IFS reported on demographic change and schools
They report “The number of children in the UK is expected to decline by about 7% or 800,000 between 2025 and 2035” and “ Policymakers could use this as an opportunity to make savings in the education budget, or they could use existing resources more intensively over a smaller population, through smaller class sizes for example”.
CORPORATE: The Property Franchise Group published Trading Update
They report “Current trading remains strong” and “Whilst the increased property taxes on landlords in the Government’s budget were disappointing, we anticipate this to have a limited impact on the business going forward with the changes likely to drive further rental inflation as landlords pass these costs on to tenants”.
Chart of the Week
This week MHCLG published the first of their 2024/25 English Housing Survey (EHS) reports – the headline findings on demographics and household resilience. It’s always a welcome report given the wealth of data it provides on the state of England’s housing market. Unfortunately, much like other surveys, it appears to be struggling since the pandemic.
The most obvious sign is in the average household size data which peaked at 2.38 people per household in 2019/20 then fell to 2.17 the following year. It has since recovered to 2.22 but that’s still well below previous levels. This doesn’t appear correct given other survey results and the underlying population growth we’ve seen recently – we’d expect the ratio to be rising. To highlight the issue, we’ve used the average household size and number of households to create an implied household population from the EHS. We’ve then compared it to the broader ONS population estimates as per the chart below. We’d expect the implied EHS data to be consistently lower than the ONS data due to different definitions (household population vs. total) but following a similar trend – as seen prior to the pandemic. However, since then, the EHS data shows a sharp population drop and a minimal recovery – despite the ONS population estimates rising rapidly. Something doesn’t look right and it potentially has all sorts of implications on other EHS outputs such as household types, overcrowding, and even trends in tenure. Interestingly, it doesn’t appear to be a sample size issue – the 2024/25 sample is the largest it’s been since 2010/11.
