UK house prices grew by 4.7% in the year to May 2017, 0.6 percentage points lower than in the year to April 2017. While the annual growth rate has slowed since mid-2016 it has remained broadly around 5% during 2017.

In terms of housing demand the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) residential market survey for May 2017 reported that price expectations remain moderately positive while new buyer enquiries decreased over the month.

The UK Property Transaction statistics showed that in May 2017 the number of seasonally adjusted property transactions completed in the UK with a value of £40,000 or above increased by 13.4% compared to May 2016. The unusually low level of transactions in May 2016 was associated with the introduction of thehigher tax rates on additional propertiesintroduced from 1 April 2016. Comparing May 2017 to April 2017, property transactions fell by 3.3%.

Looking closer at the regional level of the UK, the East of England showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 7.5% in the year to May 2017. This was followed by the East Midlands at 7.2%. The lowest annual growth was in the North East, where prices increased by 1.6% over the year, followed by London at 3.0%.