
House prices rose by just 0.1% in January to an average £268,213, said Nationwide.
Robert Gardner, the building society’s chief economist, said: “The housing market continues to show resilience despite ongoing affordability pressures. As we highlighted in our recent affordability report, while there has been a modest improvement over the last year, affordability remains stretched by historic standards.
“A prospective buyer earning the average UK income and buying a typical first-time buyer property with a 20% deposit would have a monthly mortgage payment equivalent to 36% of their take-home pay – well above the long-run average of 30%.”
Prices outpace earnings growth
Nationwide added that house prices remain high relative to average earnings, with the first-time buyer house price to earnings ratio standing at 5.0 at the end of 2024, still well above the long run average of 3.9, which means the deposit hurdle remains high.
Gardner added: “This is a challenge that has been made worse by the record increase in rents in recent years, which, together with the cost-of-living crisis more generally, has hampered the ability of many in the private rented sector to save.

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“Therefore, it’s not surprising that a significant proportion of first-time buyers have to draw on help from friends and family to raise a deposit. In 2023/24, around 40% of first-time buyers had some assistance raising a deposit, either in the form of a gift or loan from family or friends, or through an inheritance.”
Homeownership levels stable
Despite the challenges of high house prices, there has been relatively little change in overall levels of homeownership in recent years.
Nationwide cited the latest English Housing Survey produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) which showed the homeownership rate remained stable in 2024 at 65%.
There was a slight increase in the number of people owning their home with a mortgage, although the majority of homeowners (around 55%) own outright. The proportion of households in the private rented sector remained stable at 19%.
The number of households in England owning their homes outright has increased by 1.3 million over the past ten years to reach 8.7 million, ‘reflecting the rise in the number of older households (aged 65+).