New data from Zoopla shows that the UK average house price rose just 1.5% in the year to June 2026 — and that only one in seven UK homes has increased in value every single year since 2021. For homeowners who have been waiting for further price growth before thinking about their options, the picture is worth looking at clearly.
Zoopla’s latest house price index, covering the period to June 2026, puts the average UK house price at £271,900 — up 1.5%, or £4,030, over the past year. That is positive growth, but it is modest by comparison with the surges of 2021 and 2022, and it conceals significant variation between regions and property types.
The finding that stands out is that fewer than one in seven UK homes — just 14% — increased in value in every year of the five-year period between June 2021 and June 2026. House price growth has been lumpy and uneven across the cycle: sharp gains in some years followed by falls or stagnation in others, depending on location and market segment. The idea of steady, reliable annual appreciation as a certainty has always been an approximation of the data; the Zoopla figures show how loose that approximation has become in practice.
The national average covers very different regional experiences. The North East and North West are among the stronger-performing areas, with annual growth of around 3.5%. Scotland is running at approximately 3.0%. At the other end, London has recorded nine consecutive months of year-on-year price falls, with values down approximately 0.2% over the past year, and the South East is also slightly negative at around -0.3%.
For homeowners in areas where prices are flat or falling, the assumption of future growth as a reason to wait before considering options becomes harder to sustain. For those in areas with positive growth, the question is whether the rate of appreciation is meaningful relative to what can be done with equity today.
Zoopla is forecasting 1.5% house price growth for 2026 as a whole — consistent with the recent trend — followed by a modestly stronger average of around 2.1% per year between 2027 and 2029. That is not a prediction of decline; it is a forecast of continued growth, but at a pace that is closer to inflation than to the double-digit gains seen in some years.
For a homeowner whose property has appreciated significantly over the past decade or two decades, the accumulated equity already in the property is typically the larger consideration than what the next two or three years might add. A property that was worth £150,000 in 2005 and is now worth £400,000 has added £250,000 in equity — and whether it reaches £410,000 or £408,600 in the next twelve months is rarely the deciding factor in whether to consider options.
The most useful thing the Zoopla data does is correct an assumption rather than change a decision. Many homeowners hold a mental model in which their property is reliably growing in value year after year at a meaningful rate. The reality — that only 14% of homes did so consistently across a five-year period — is worth knowing, because it changes the framing of “I’ll wait for the value to rise a bit more.”
If the value is not reliably rising, and if the property already contains significant equity, the question of whether to consider releasing some of that equity now — or at a specific future point — is not dependent on waiting for market conditions that may not arrive on the expected timetable.
This is not a reason to act hastily or to treat any market data as a trigger for a decision. It is a reason to have a clear, current picture of what your property is actually worth, how much of that value could potentially be accessed, and what the options look like — so that when the right time comes, the decision is informed rather than reactive.
For an overview of how releasing equity from your home works in practice, see our guide to what equity release is and our guide to how much you could release.
Find out how much of your home’s value you could release today — request your free Verity Home guide, no obligation.
Request the free guide