The first annual price fall since 2023, and the South East leads it (12 September 2026)
Two of the housing market's main gauges reported this week and they agree on the direction even where they disagree on the numbers. Prices are drifting down, the South East is drifting fastest, and buyer activity is quietly improving underneath it.
Lloyds records the first annual fall since November 2023
The Lloyds House Price Index for August, published on 7 September, showed UK house prices down 0.4% year on year, the first annual fall since November 2023. The average price was £298,468, against £299,569 in August 2025, and prices fell 0.2% on the month where the market had expected a 0.2% rise.
The regional split is the part that matters here. The South East recorded the largest fall of any region at 1.6%, taking the average to £381,729, with Greater London down 1.5% to £534,177 and eastern England down 1.2%. Northern Ireland was up 6.9%, Scotland up 3.5% and the North East up 2.7%. In other words the national number is close to flat because the South is falling and the North is rising.
Lloyds mortgages director Andrew Assam pointed to "the impact of global events on inflation and borrowing costs creating greater economic uncertainty". Jonathan Hopper of Garrington Property Finders made the affordability point directly: high values mean large mortgages, and recent rate movements have squeezed what buyers can carry.
Why this reads differently from last week's Nationwide figure
Nationwide's August index, published on 1 September, had prices up 0.2% on the month and 1.6% on the year at an average of £275,465. Lloyds has them down. Neither is wrong. The two indices measure their own mortgage approvals, so they cover different buyers, different regions in different proportions and different points in the transaction. Nationwide's sample skews differently from Lloyds' and the averages are £23,000 apart for that reason.
The useful conclusion is not to pick a winner but to note what they share: no meaningful growth, and a market where the South East is weaker than the average.
RICS: buyers coming back, prices still slipping
The RICS residential survey for August, published on 10 September, had new buyer enquiries at a net balance of minus 19%, the least negative since January and a fifth consecutive monthly improvement. Agreed sales improved to minus 17% from a low of minus 38% in April. Expectations turned positive further out: minus 3% for agreed sales over three months, and plus 6% for sales volumes over twelve.
Prices have not followed. The house price balance was minus 28% and surveyors still expect falls over the next three months before stabilising. New instructions were flat at 0% and market appraisals were minus 17%, so the supply queueing up behind those returning buyers is thinning.
Tarrant Parsons of RICS described "a market gradually finding its footing, with key activity indicators progressively less negative". On lettings the numbers were sharper: tenant demand plus 18%, landlord instructions minus 14%, and a net 44% expecting rents to rise over the next three months, with an average increase of about 3% forecast over a year.
What this means if you are moving in Sussex
If you are selling, price against what has actually completed nearby in the last three months, not against what is currently listed. In a region running at minus 1.6% annually, a listing that sat unsold through the summer is evidence about the asking price, not about the market.
If you are buying, the combination of improving enquiries and thinning instructions is worth watching. More competition for fewer homes usually shows up in negotiating room before it shows up in the indices. And if a move depends on renting first, the letting figures argue for locking a tenancy sooner rather than later.