The Nationwide Building Society released its house prices data for the U.K. on Friday. UK house prices were up 0.8% in March, after a 0.4% increase in February.

On a yearly basis, house prices rose to 5.7% in March from 4.8 in February. It was the biggest rise since January 2015.

"There has been a pickup in housing market activity in recent months, with the number of housing transactions and mortgage approvals rising strongly. This is likely to have been driven, at least in part, by upcoming changes to stamp duty on second homes, where buyers have brought forward purchases in order to avoid the additional tax liabilities, Nationwide's Chief Economist, Robert Gardner, said.