The average UK house price decreased by 0.4% between November and December 2022, said the Office for National Statistics.

Average UK house prices increased by 9.8% in the 12 months to December 2022, down from 10.6% in November 2022.

This took the average UK house price to £294,000 in December 2022, £26,000 higher than 12 months earlier.

Home nations

Average house prices increased over the 12 months to December to £315,000 (10.3%) in England, £222,000 in Wales (10.3%), £187,000 in Scotland (5.7%) and £175,000 in Northern Ireland (10.2%).

In London, house prices hit a staggering £543,000, a rise of 6.7% over the year.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “House prices were on the slide in December, and this is just the start of what’s likely to be an increasingly slippery slope. Prices were tipped over the edge by mortgage hikes, and we can expect momentum to sustain monthly slides until eventually the annual figures hit negative territory.

“There’s plenty of disagreement over how far they’ll fall – and how long for – but there remains a broad consensus that we’re heading downhill.”

Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, added: “We are clearly seeing a slowdown in house price growth, but it is a gradual readjustment, and fears of an aggressive drop-off in transactions like we saw during the global financial crisis have been put to bed.

“The industry is bracing for an overall decrease of around 8%, but crucially, a fall of this size would only bring house prices down to what they were in 2021.

“Growth will eventually return, but it is unlikely to come at the rate we have seen over the last couple of years.”