DATA: Halifax reported UK house prices rose 0.4% in year to Apr 2026
They report(PDF) “Annual growth slowed to +0.4%, from +0.8% in March” and “Northern Ireland continues to record the strongest annual growth at +7.6%”. They also report “the southern markets continue to see prices fall” as “The South East led declines, with prices down -2.0% year‑on‑year to £383,044, while London saw average values fall by -1.4% to £536,051”.
DATA: BoE published quoted mortgage rate data for Apr 2026
The latest data shows the average quoted mortgage rate for a two-year fixed-rate at 75% loan-to-value was 5.14%, up from 4.45% the previous month and 3.92% in January. The revert-to-rate (standard variable rate) was unchanged at 6.60%.
DATA: DfBT published construction building materials stats for Mar 2026
They report “deliveries of bricks decreased by 3.6% in March 2026 compared with March 2025” and “the material price index for ‘All Work’ increased by 2.6% in March 2026 compared with March 2025”.
DATA: MHCLG published energy efficiency of new dwellings
They report “The proportion of all new dwellings built to the Part L 2021 Standard in March 2026 was 74%, up from 50% in March 2025” and “By property type in March 2026: Bungalows 83%, Flats 58% and Houses 85%”.
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 4.36% on the 6th May compared to 4.58% on the 29th Apr.
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 209,922 for the week commencing 27th Apr, slightly lower than the 210,169 total for the previous week.
REPORT: UKF published Lending Where We Live report
Based on lending data for 2025, they report “Affordability pressures highest in East Anglia and the London commuter belt” and “Buy‑to‑let returns strongest in Scotland”. The report provides some local authority data, see Chart of the Week for more detail.
REPORT: HBF published The Viability Crunch report
They report “£76,000 has been added to the cost of building a home since 2020”. This is made up of: “More than £7,000 in taxes and levies, including £2,000 in Landfill Tax, £2,320 from the forthcoming Building Safety Levy, £2,055 in other taxes and £985 from inflationary increases on existing charges such as Section 106 agreements”, “Over £23,000 in regulatory costs, including £7,770 for building regulations, £5,700 for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and £10,200 in costs linked to the Future Homes Standard”, “£37,000 in increased material and labour costs due to high levels of inflation”, and “£7,000 in additional potential site-specific costs like nutrient mitigation requirements”.
REPORT: Fabians reported on the built environment skills crisis
They report the workforce and skills crisis in the construction and built environment sector is “escalating, with the number of skills shortage vacancies increasing fivefold (419 per cent) since 2011” and will worsen as the workforce is ageing and demand is increasing. They recommend the government should “develop a cross-department workforce and skills strategy for construction and the built environment”.
REPORT: IFS reported on energy efficiency info and house values
They report on “the housing market response to a national disclosure policy that mandated the prominent display of energy efficiency information at listing” and “Using the near-universe of housing transactions in England and Wales with a flexible generalized difference-in-differences specification, we estimate willingness-to-pay premiums for more energy-efficient properties of 1–3% nationally and up to 6.5% in London”. They also report “Information salience is a key channel: buyers respond to the efficiency rating made prominent at listing, but not to detailed energy information in the same certificate, equally available before and after”.
REPORT: English Rural reported on the costs of rural affordable housing
They report that while building rural affordable homes costs more, the running costs are the same as or less than those from comparable providers.
BLOG: Bank Underground on flood insurance protection gaps
They “built a model to estimate potential protection gaps, finding that – under conservative assumptions – the share of UK mortgagors uninsured could increase from 5% today to around 7%–10% in 2050, or up to 16% following a severe flood event”. They report the “results suggest they may not threaten banking system resilience, they could have a range of negative consequences for affected households, as well as lenders exposed to high-risk areas, and wider economic growth”
NEWS: Construction Products Association published spring forecasts
They report “Construction output is now expected to fall by 2.5% in 2026 and although output is still expected to rise by 1.2% in 2027, the risks remain heavily on the downside” and “This is a sharp, unprecedented downward revision to the CPA’s forecasts since the Winter forecasts, driven by the potential impact of global events”. They also report “Overall, private housing output is forecast to fall by 7.0% in 2026, from an already low level, and remain flat in 2027”.
CORPORATE: Rightmove published Trading Statement
They report “Core Membership has increased since year-end, supporting our ongoing expectation of c.1% membership growth across Estate Agency and New Homes in 2026” and “We expect growth in Agency to offset New Homes developments, which continue to see subdued build rates”.
Chart of the Week
The latest UK Finance report provides some useful data on house purchase and buy-to-let lending at a local authority level. They warn that “Mortgage affordability [is] at [its] tightest level since 2008, with significant regional differences” as the “Average borrower spends 21.3 per cent of gross income on repayments”. As the map of their data below shows, this varies from over 25% in North Norfolk and Hillingdon to just 17% in East Ayrshire and Inverclyde in Scotland.
The most expensive areas in terms of repayment affordability are generally found in outer London and the relatively cheaper parts of the South East (e.g. Luton and Slough), perhaps reflecting a higher proportion of first-time buyers in these markets, who tend to have much higher repayments than mortgaged movers. Unfortunately, there’s no data available on just first-time buyers so it’s not possible to identify how much of more local spatial patterns reflect differences in affordability or differences in the mix of mortgaged buyers.