DATA: Nationwide reported UK house prices rose 3.5% in year to May 2025
They report the annual rate rose slightly, from 3.4% the previous month, thanks to a 0.5% monthly rise. They also report “House prices in predominantly rural areas have risen by 23% over the last five years, compared to 18% in more urban areas”.
DATA: Halifax reported UK house prices rose 2.5% in year to May 2025
They report(PDF) the annual rate fell from 3.2% the previous month with a 0.4% monthly fall. They also report “Northern Ireland once again recorded the fastest pace of annual property price inflation, up by +8.6% over the past year” while “London continues to see more subdued growth, with prices rising by just +1.2% year-on-year”
DATA: BoE reported 60,463 mortgage approvals for purchase in Apr 2025
The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase was 4.9% lower than the previous month and 2.1% lower than the same month last year. The number of seasonally adjusted mortgage approvals for house purchase has fallen 11.5% over the last six months.
DATA: BoE published quoted mortgage rate data for May 2025
Average rates across all product types fell in May, with the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage at 75% loan-to-value falling to 4.2% (4.4% previously) and the revert-to-rate falling to 7.1% (7.2% previously).
DATA: BoE published effective mortgage rate data for Apr 2025
They report the average rate on new advances (remortgage and purchase) fell slightly from 4.51% the previous month to 4.50%. The average rate on outstanding balances increased slightly, from 3.85% to 3.87%.
DATA: VOA published local reference rents for May 2025
The release provides rents for residential property in England by broad rental market area and number of rooms.
DATA: Scottish Gov published cladding remediation estimates
They estimate that “around 250 of the residential high-rise (18m+) buildings in Scotland might require work to alleviate external wall system (EWS) life-safety fire risk” and “around 1,020-1,200 of the mid-rise (11-18m) residential buildings in Scotland require work to alleviate external wall system (EWS) life-safety fire risk”.
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 3.64% on the 4th Jun compared to 3.75% on the 28th May.
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 208,193 for the week commencing 26th May, down from 208,279 the previous week.
POLICY: Chancellor announced regional transport funding
These are the “first investment announcements from the Spending Review, with £15.6 billion of funding for local transport projects in England’s city regions – including South Yorkshire, the North East, the East Midlands and Tees Valley”.
POLICY: Gov confirms new builds to have solar panels by default
“Ministers are publishing the Future Homes Standard this autumn and have confirmed today (Friday 6 June) that solar panels will be included, leading to installation on the vast majority of new build homes”.
POLICY: Scottish Gov published Building Safety Levy Bill
It “seeks to raise around £30 million per year to help fund work to fix residential buildings with unsafe cladding which have no linked developer”.
REPORT: UK Finance published Household Finance Review for Q1 2025
They report “For the quarter as a whole, first-time buyer completions increased 62 per cent year-on-year and homemover completions increased by 74 per cent”. They also report “Despite this surge, affordability remains stretched. Borrowers continue to take longer mortgage terms to help manage affordability pressures, especially first-time buyers. The average first-time buyer mortgage term is now 31 years as of March, compared with 28 years in March 2015” and “The amount spent by first time buyers on mortgage payments relative to their income is also high. Even as interest rates have come down, this measure of affordability has not eased significantly, with rising house prices largely offsetting any lowering of payments through falling rates”. The full document is here(PDF).
REPORT: Bank Underground on mortgage supply and homeownership
Their “results suggest that policy actions aiming to increase aggregate mortgage supply might not necessarily increase home ownership, unless they are accompanied by parallel efforts to increase the responsiveness of housing supply”.
REPORT: NHF published Shared Ownership Code
“The code is made up of seven overarching principles and addresses each aspect of customer experience. It has been designed to incorporate existing legislation and policies as well as drive best practice”.
REPORT: UK Finance on unlocking demand for green home finance
They report “The financial services sector has built up nearly two decades of experience supporting homeowners to finance green home improvements. But uptake remains low and will not scale until demand ramps up” and set out “nine actions to inspire action, improve the pay-back and redefine standards for homeowners to make green improvements to their properties”.
REPORT: NAO reported on developer contributions
They report “Developer contributions support the delivery of vital new infrastructure and affordable housing for local areas, but they have significant limitations. Current policy is not reliably delivering the infrastructure funding required for new developments, even where it may be financially viable to do so” and “Additionally LPAs are stretched, both in terms of finances and skills, meaning they are often unable to effectively challenge developers. The number of planners leaving the public sector and the resulting vacancies make these challenges more acute”. They conclude “Asymmetries of skills and resources between LPAs and larger developers, the complexity of financial viability assessments, and a lack of coordinated support from central government, all need to be addressed for these challenges to be overcome. Until they are, we cannot conclude that the current approach represents value for money”.
REPORT: HBF reported on infrastructure agreements and planning
They report that “Responses to a Freedom of Information request to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) reveal that the average time to finalise S106 agreements has increased by 20% over two years, from 425 days in 2022/23 to 515 days in 2024/25”.
REPORT: Regulator of Social Housing published quarterly survey
They report “Providers continued to build and acquire much-needed new social homes, spending £13.6bn in the 12 months to March 2025. This compares to £14.4 billion in the year to March 2024”.
CORPORATE: MJ Gleeson published Trading Update
They report “The pace of the housing market recovery has not been sufficient to offset the cumulative impact on Gleeson Homes’ gross margin of a number of headwinds through the year. These include increased build costs, flat selling prices, the continued use of incentives and several bulk sale transactions. Consequently, Gleeson Homes gross margin for the year will be circa 1% lower than previously expected”.
CORPORATE: Empiric Student Property published Trading Update
They report “Following the return to a more normalised sales pattern, wherein recent years bookings cycles have progressed significantly faster than the long-term average, reservations remain behind those achieved for the 2024/25 academic year at 65 per cent”. However, they “continue to anticipate achieving an occupancy rate of 97 per cent or better with the delivery of like for like rental growth comfortably in excess of inflation at between four and five per cent”.
Chart of the Week
While we’ve been regularly tracking the national number of new build Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), it has been a while since we checked in on the regional patterns. The chart below, grouping English regions into broader areas highlights the decline in delivery across all regions over the last couple of years. The fall has been most severe in the South of England but there are now signs that it has stabilised – albeit around annual rates last seen during the depths of the housing market shutdown during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the fall, although it started later than the South, continues in the North of England and Midlands. Annual rates of new build EPCs are now well below 2020 levels and are not yet showing any signs of stabilisation. Delivery is also falling in the Midlands but has not fallen as far as it did during the pandemic. Meanwhile, London continues to stagnate at levels last seen in 2015. The state of regional new supply is not looking pretty but there are possible signs for some optimism in the future.
