In May 2026, the average price of property coming to market on Rightmove rose to £378,304.

In our House Price Index, we track how the price of properties coming to market changes, and the reasons behind these fluctuations. It’s the largest and most up-to-date view of what’s happening to property prices.

Back in 2025, our experts predicted that average asking prices will increase by 2% by the end of 2026. However, the amount that asking prices will increase by depends on the region of the UK you’re looking at.

For example, buyer affordability is currently the reason behind a clear divide between house price growth in the north and south of England, with the North East (+2.7%) and North West (+2.6%) regions continuing to see growth, while higher-priced London (-2.4%) and the South East (-1.6%) are seeing price drops.

You can find out the average asking price in your area by checking our monthly house price index.

General inflation measures the price of goods and services bought by UK households. Typically, this means things like food and clothes. There are several ways to measure general inflation in the UK. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is one of the most common. It’s published by the Office for National Statistics every month.

General inflation

People’s confidence levels in their individual financial position can be affected by general inflation. And this in turn can impact the demand to buy a home. However, inflation increasing or decreasing doesn’t necessarily mean that house prices will follow the same trend. This is because house prices can be affected by a number of related factors.

Supply and demand

Supply and demand is one of the key factors that affects house prices. It describes the level of demand there is for properties, compared with the supply, or number of homes there are available to buy.

Other reasons

House prices can also be affected by how easy it is to borrow money, as well as incentives from the government.

Over the past 20 years asking prices of homes across Great Britain have more than doubled, from just over £150,000 to over £378,000. This means that house price inflation has outpaced both general inflation and average salaries over the same period.

In May, national average asking prices increased by 1.2% from April.

House price trends in regions and local markets across Great Britain can vary. Year-on-Year (YoY), national average house prices dropped by 0.3%, but there is a lot more going on at a regional level. The more affordable North East and North West regions saw YoY price growth of over 2.7% and 2.6% respectively, while London (-2.4%) and the South East (-1.6%) saw YoY prices fall.

Checking sold house prices in your local area gives a better reflection of what is happening near you.

*Latest available asking price data from Rightmove’s House Price Index in May 2026

HM Land Registry, which contains sold property transactions that occur in England and Wales, updates their sold house prices data on the 20th day of each month. However, the time between the sale of a property and the registration of this information varies between a few weeks, and a number of months. Registers of Scotland processes the majority of cases within 35 days. So, in both cases, data for the two most recent months isn’t complete.

Once HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland update their data, we typically update our sold prices within a few weeks, but this can sometimes take longer.