Property asking prices rise in April despite higher UK mortgage rates

April 19, 2026 adminsr

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Asking prices for properties in Great Britain have risen by 0.8 per cent this month, indicating resilience in the housing market despite a rise in mortgage rates in the wake of the Iran war.

The average asking price of properties put up for sale in the four weeks to mid-April was £373,971, up by £2,929 from the previous month, according to data published by the portal Rightmove on Monday.

The 0.8 per cent rise was below the long-term average of 1.2 per cent growth between March and April. But it came against a backdrop of a rise in mortgage rates after the Iran war pushed up oil and gas prices, which prompted investors to price in interest rates staying higher for longer.

Colleen Babcock, property expert at Rightmove, said that concerns over higher living and borrowing costs meant some prospective buyers would be feeling “cautious”.

But she added: “The latest data shows that, at least for now, home-movers are largely showing their usual resilience, with their housing needs trumping other events.”

While higher mortgage rates negatively affected affordability, many buyers were also benefiting from rising wages, lower house prices and more flexible borrowing criteria than in recent years, she added.

Asking prices in the four weeks to mid-April were down 0.9 per cent from the same month in 2025. In contrast, total earnings rose by an annual rate of 3.9 per cent in the three months to January, according to the latest official data, above the 3 per cent rate of inflation in February.

Last year’s review by the Financial Conduct Authority of the loan-to-income cap, which dictates how much buyers can borrow towards a purchase, gave lenders greater flexibility and means a typical housebuyer is now also able to borrow more.

Rightmove said the number of homes for sale was at an 11-year high, and that the number of deals agreed was also resilient, at just 3 per cent behind this time in 2025.

The number of homes newly coming to market was just 1 per cent lower than last year and 13 per cent higher than in 2024, when the property market was recovering from the peak in mortgage rates, it added.

London was an outlier, with asking prices falling 0.1 per cent month on month — the only regional decline — and down 2.7 per cent from a year earlier, the steepest fall in Great Britain.

The average two‑year fixed rate had risen to 5.42 per cent by last week, from 4.25 per cent before the war began in late February, according to Rightmove, adding an average of about £235 a month to a typical new mortgage.

Financial markets widely expect the Bank of England to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent when its Monetary Policy Committee next meets at the end of this month.

Before the war, which has rattled global energy markets, traders expected a series of cuts as inflation was on track to fall to the official 2 per cent target.

On Friday, energy prices fell after Iran’s foreign minister said that the Strait of Hormuz was “completely open” to commercial shipping for the duration of the ceasefire in Lebanon.

Asked about the impact of the war on the UK economy, BoE governor Andrew Bailey told the BBC last week that “we’re not going to rush to judgments on those things, because there are a lot of uncertainties around this, not just how it’s going to play out, but also how it’s going to pass through”.