UK house prices fell in May 2026, but the headline number hides three completely different stories, and whether your property rises or falls this year depends on which of those three markets you're in
Not sure why house prices increasing to catch up with London is a good thing. Where I live, house prices are getting unaffordable for young people. That is not a healthy market. Ive never understood why people thinking house prices rising above levels of inflation is good news..... I bought a house to be a home not an investment.
With a long-term return of 2% above inflation on your capital, housing is a pretty poor investment, especially a) given the lack of short-term liquidity, and b) that UK bonds return about the same!
My wife and I actually bought our current house in part due to research on the local area. Long term projections of rather sharp increases in the local population combined with rather low local real estate prices made a house purchase sensible. And it has been good so far, price up around 60% nominal since we bought in 2018 (Kristiansand, Norway). My wife and I have generally been pretty dumb investors but that seems one of the better decisions.
Anyway, looking at stuff like that could make sense if you're geographically flexible.
One thing I hate to hear is rises in house price talked about as 'performance', when used in the sense that rising prices = good performance and falling prices = poor performance. How did we lose sight of that fact that house prices already freeze our children (who we rely on, one way or another) out of the market. fertility rates are through the floor; people can't afford to own homes and are deferring or cancelling having families as a result. Current pensions are paid from current tax receipts - so to suffer population decline at to fast a rate is a sort of national suicide. how can we glibly talk about 'performance' whilst being willfully blind to the social and cultural costs of rising house prices? I find it sickening.
Own a leasehold flat in outer London. It’s only increase by about 10k since I bought it 10 years ago but I love it. It my home. Service charge is quite high, but beats renting.
In Spain, the difference in price between a flat and a house is massive, the flat can cost between 2 or 3 times less in the same area. In the UK I barely see the difference, so I am not surprise that the flat prices are going down, who would buy a flat just to save a ridiculus 5% to 10%. Just add another 20k o 30k and you can buy a house. And the difference between living in a house or a flat it is massive.
Thing is, houses may theoretically become more “affordable” in real terms with wage inflation, but that doesn’t account for more of your earnings being taken away by fiscal drag.
Did you mention the effects of fire defect remediation costs imposed on flat leaseholders post-Grenfell? These costs were recovered by the freeholder/building management through section 20 notices. Building Safety Act 2022 may have improved things for leaseholders, but the effect was to 'scare' a lot of people off buying flats. Many owners or prospective buyers didn't even know they could be on the line for massive unscheduled/emergency maintenance costs, such as lift repairs/replacements, for example. It's not just fire-defects, and now many are more cognizant of the realities of owning flats, especially high rise.
I think that the system is draining the wealth of the parents and grandparents of the young buyers and first time buyers this last decade, and now we're seeing adverts on TV for parents to guarantee the mortgage of their kids. This rings bells for me of loan guarantees for kids to buy cars back in the 90's, and it was a sign then that all was not well. Once the wealth of this last generation with good pensions has been drained, things will look ugly going forwards unless the value of property does come down. That's what I think anyway.
The market is doing it's work. House prices NEED to come down if we want them to become affordable to our young generations again. As a GenX with a £1m I am happy that prices continue to stagnate.
Leasehold is finally being recognised for what it is: a licence to print money for the landowners and the cause of depreciation and administrative stress for the leaseholder. When the lease expires the landowners can reclaim the property, unless you pay them £'000's in extension fees. Mortgage companies won't give mortgages on a property with less than 80 years lease remaining.
The government has passed a Bill to ban it, but nothing has changed at the ground level. Many Leaseholders remain trapped and unable to sell, due to expiring leases with massive extension fees (£'000's if not £hundreds of thousands).
I know because I was in a leasehold trap - but managed to get out by selling my property a loss. The lesson I learned: NEVER BUY A LEASEHOLD. BUT IF YOU MUST - ONLY LOOK AT THOSE WITH AT LEAST A 900 YEAR LEASE PERIOD. Yes, that's '900' YEARS.
If you want to go deeper than these videos, I'd love for you to join the PensionCraft membership over at pensioncraft.com/investor-education/membership/ . You'll get access to courses, trackers, a friendly community, and a monthly live Q&A where you can ask me anything directly. It's designed for everyone from complete beginners to more experienced investors — and it's the best way to support what we do here. In the meantime, a like or subscribe goes a long way. Thank you for watching — Ramin
We use cookies, device fingerprinting and cross-device tracking to personalise content, serve targeted advertising, and analyse how you use our site across your devices. By clicking Accept all you consent to the use of these tracking technologies. Your data may be used to build a profile of your interests and show you personalised ads on other sites.
Privacy policy
Comments (20)
Daily Junction discussion mixed with clearly attributed comments from the original video provider.
Join in — free. Comments on Daily Junction are for members, so real names stay rare and bots stay out.
One field. We email you a 6-digit code — no password needed. Your comment is kept while you do it.
Under 13? You’ll need a parent’s OK first — it takes them one click.
Anyway, looking at stuff like that could make sense if you're geographically flexible.
The government has passed a Bill to ban it, but nothing has changed at the ground level. Many Leaseholders remain trapped and unable to sell, due to expiring leases with massive extension fees (£'000's if not £hundreds of thousands).
I know because I was in a leasehold trap - but managed to get out by selling my property a loss. The lesson I learned: NEVER BUY A LEASEHOLD. BUT IF YOU MUST - ONLY LOOK AT THOSE WITH AT LEAST A 900 YEAR LEASE PERIOD. Yes, that's '900' YEARS.