The building society said that prices didn’t change between February and March, with the average property price at £271,316.
Annual house price growth remained steady too, at 3.9%.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “These price trends are unsurprising, given the end of the stamp duty holiday at the end of March (transactions associated with mortgage approvals made in March, especially toward the end of the month, would be unlikely to complete before the deadline).
“Indeed, the market is likely to remain a little soft in the coming months since activity will have been brought forward to avoid the additional tax obligations – a pattern typically observed in the wake of the end of stamp duty holidays.”
Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Bestinvest, added: “UK house price growth flatlined in March at 3.9% on an annual basis with no change in prices month-on-month.
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“The lack of growth reflects the unwinding of the recent surge in prices driven by homebuyers frantically trying to beat stamp duty threshold changes that take effect today.”
However, Gardner predicted that activity will pick up steadily as the summer progresses, because conditions for potential home buyers in the UK remain supportive.
He explained: “The unemployment rate is low, earnings are rising at a healthy pace in real terms (i.e. after accounting for inflation), household balance sheets are strong and borrowing costs are likely to moderate a little if Bank Rate is lowered further in the coming quarters as we and most other analysts expect.”
Regional differences
Northern Ireland remained the top performing area, with annual price growth accelerating to 13.5%.
London was the weakest performing region, with just a 1.9% year-on-year rise.
Scotland saw a 3.9% annual rise, while Wales was close behind at 3.6%.
Across England overall, prices were up 3.3% year-on-year. The North West was the best performing English region, with prices up 5.9% year on year.