UK sees biggest-ever January house price boom
The average price of new homes listed for sale in the UK has risen by 2.8%, which is the largest ever price increase recorded in the month of January.
This is according to the Rightmove House Price Index for January 2026, which showed an average price increase of £9,893 for new homes coming to the market for sale this month.
The average price of a home in the UK now sits at £368,031.
This house price increase is not only the biggest ever recorded in January, but also the biggest monthly house price rise since June 2015.
Year on year, average asking prices are now just ahead of the same point last year, with home movers returning to the market after the uncertainty of the Budget in November and a post-Boxing Day surge.
Despite this record surge, the number of homes available for sale is also the highest it has been at this time of year since 2014, and a third of existing homes for sale have seen a price reduction.
Rightmove noted that based on this information, new sellers should be wary of being too optimistic when setting their selling price.
“It’s an encouraging start to the year to see sellers confident enough to list their homes at higher prices after several months of muted price growth last year, coinciding with more potential buyers returning to market,” said Rightmove property expert Colleen Babcock.
“Some buyers, particularly first-time buyers, won’t want to see prices rising too quickly. However, asking prices are only back to where they were in the summer of 2025 before the Budget rumours began surfacing, which unsettled the market and dented confidence.”
“There’s a twelve-year high number of homes for sale for this time of year, so buyers have lots of choice, and a third of properties that were already on the market for sale have had a price reduction,” she said.
“This means that sellers need to be realistic and balance the price they want to achieve with the likelihood of being able to find a buyer in their local market at that price.”
