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- Semi-detached house prices are up 4.9% year-on-year but flats down 0.2%
House prices rose slightly in August, but owners of flats and homes in London are likely to have seen the value of their properties decline.
Average house prices rose by £8,000 in the year to August, according to the Office for National Statistics, having seen an 0.8 per cent rise over the past month.
The typical home is now worth £273,000, which is 3 per cent above the amount recorded 12 months ago.
However, the figures also showed property prices have been rising more in the north of the country and less in the south.
For example, homes in the North East are up 6.6 per cent year-on-year, while in London they have fallen by 0.3 per cent.
There is also a gap opening up between houses and flats. Semi-detached homes are up 4.9 per cent on average compared to a year ago while flat and maisonette prices have fallen by 0.2 per cent.
In some regions, the falls for flat owners will be felt more acutely.
Across England, the average price paid for flats and maisonettes dropped by 0.8 per cent in the year to August. In Wales they fell by 1.4 per cent, while prices in London plunged 2.6 per cent over the same period.
Estate agent Jonathan Hopper, chief executive of Garrington Property Finders, said: 'This is a tough time to be selling a flat. Months of stagnating prices have turned into falls.
'Meanwhile, average price growth is accelerating for houses, especially semis.'
Slowing growth in the property market is being influenced in part by rumours of changes to property taxes in the upcoming Budget, according to experts.
Richard Donnell, executive director of research at Zoopla, said: 'House price inflation is slowing. Budget uncertainty is leading to a slowdown in sales and demand which will drive a continued slowdown in house price inflation.'
Hopper added that it was a buyers' market, and some were negotiating big price reductions.
'The imbalance between supply and demand is giving buyers the twin luxuries of time and choice - and emboldening them to ask for - and get - price reductions,' he said.
'But we’re also seeing a two-speed market emerge among buyers. Those who need to move are pressing ahead but negotiating hard to de-risk themselves from any tax changes that may lurk in next month’s Budget.
'Meanwhile discretionary movers - especially those looking at higher price points - are adopting a wait-and-see approach.'
The ONS figures run on a delay compared to other house price indexes as they are based on sold prices that can take months to show on the Land Registry.
A more current snapshot is provided by the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), released earlier this month.
This month's survey revealed more Rics members, comprising of estate agents and surveyors, reported house prices falling in their areas than those that reported prices rising.
It also reported that new buyer enquiries fell for a second straight month with a decline in agreed sales.
This is Money also revealed yesterday that vast numbers of home sellers are slashing their asking prices.
In the year to date, it revealed there have been 918,585 price reductions, a 16 per cent jump from 791,820 in 2024, according to property data firm TwentyCi, and 23 per cent more than the 747,873 recorded in 2023.
Compared to 2021 and 2022, when the property market was booming, the number of asking price cuts has more than doubled.
There has also been a spike in the number of sales collapsing altogether. So far in 2025, some 240,075 property sales have been abandoned according to TwentyCi's data.
That's 20,509 more than at the same point in 2024, a more than 9 per cent increase, and and 34,884 (17 per cent) more than in 2023.