Property market update
Prices hold their nerve, the market slows
The September 2026 Home Asking Price Index shows asking prices holding broadly steady while the time it takes to secure a buyer has risen sharply. home.co.uk has provided independent property market intelligence since 1995. Data in this edition runs to 10 September 2026.
September 2026 snapshot
Average asking price: £394,824 across England and Wales.
Monthly change: -0.26% compared with August.
Annual change: -0.49%.
Typical time to sell: 61 days, up from 39 days a year ago.
The average asking price across England and Wales is £394,824 this month.
That is down 0.26% on August and 0.49% on a year ago, while the index sits just 0.9% below its June 2025 peak.
In cash terms, the market has effectively gone sideways for a year.
That is the calm headline. The bigger story underneath it is about pace — and the pace has changed considerably.
A typical sale now takes 61 days
A typical home now takes 61 days to sell from first listing, compared with 39 days a year ago.
That is a rise of 56% and makes this the slowest September since 2014.
61 days
Typical time to sell
+56%
Longer than a year ago
2014
Last September this slow
The East of England has slowed the most, with typical selling times up 78%, while Greater London is close behind at 72%.
The main change is turnover.
Across January to July, the market turned over 2,243 properties a day, against 3,045 a day in the same period last year. That 26% fall is the steepest movement of any measure in the report.
This is not a flood of new stock.
New instructions are almost exactly level with last year, while unsold stock is slightly lower. Homes are coming to market at the usual rate. They are simply taking much longer to find a buyer.
Eleven markets, one average
The national figure hides a striking regional divide.
| Region | Average asking price | 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | £236,712 | +9.2% |
| North East | £207,497 | +4.1% |
| North West | £290,387 | +3.9% |
| Wales | £286,187 | +2.5% |
| Yorkshire & The Humber | £270,988 | +2.0% |
| West Midlands | £314,655 | +1.9% |
| South East | £497,701 | +0.1% |
| East of England | £421,120 | -0.2% |
| East Midlands | £290,415 | -0.3% |
| South West | £389,097 | -2.0% |
| Greater London | £671,242 | -4.5% |
| England & Wales | £394,824 | -0.5% |
The three most expensive regions are all flat or falling, while the three cheapest are all rising.
The gap between the fastest and slowest region is 13.7 percentage points, and it follows the price gradient closely: the cheaper the market, the faster it is still climbing.
Greater London now asks 3.2 times what the North East does.
Scotland is also the quickest place to sell at a typical 25 days. Greater London is the slowest at 79.
Flat in cash, down in real terms
Once inflation is taken into account, asking prices are down 3.9% on the year.
Real growth has now been negative for 16 consecutive months.
Over five years, housing has fallen behind inflation in every region. Over twenty years it has roughly kept pace, with Greater London the clear exception.
Rents are moving the other way in London
The mean advertised rent across all regions is £1,667 a month.
Wales posted the strongest annual rise at 3.8%, with the West Midlands and North West close behind.
In Greater London, advertised rents are up 1.3% to £2,844 a month while asking prices are down 4.5%, meaning the sales and rental markets are moving in opposite directions.
What it means for agents
This is not a price correction. It is a liquidity one.
Sellers are holding their asking prices and the market is absorbing the difference in time.
That matters most at valuation.
When turnover falls this far and asking prices stay put, the gap does not necessarily show up as headline price cuts. It shows up as homes sitting on the market for weeks longer than the seller expected.
A valuation pitched to last year’s pace of sale is likely to sit, and the conversation about price is easier to have on day one than on day sixty.
About the index
The Home Asking Price Index tracks the prices sellers ask for residential property using more than 500,000 advertised homes a month, with each property counted once across every agent and channel on which it appears.
Figures are mix-adjusted by region and property type, so changes in the composition of homes currently listed do not distort the index.
Asking prices lead completed-sale prices by roughly five months, making them one of the earliest signals in the transaction chain.
home.co.uk has provided independent property market intelligence since 1995. Data in this edition runs to 10 September 2026.
September 2026 Home Asking Price Index
See the full regional picture
Read the full September report from home.co.uk for every chart, regional table and measure behind the headline figures.
