Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide's Chief Economist, said: “October saw a slowdown in annual house price growth to 1.6% from 2.0% in September. As a result, annual house price growth moved below the narrow range of c2-3% prevailing over the previous 12 months. “However, this was broadly in line with our expectations, as the squeeze on household budgets and the uncertain economic outlook is likely to have dampened demand, even though borrowing costs remain low by historic standards and unemployment is at 40-year lows. We continue to expect house prices to rise by around 1% over the course of 2018”.