UK house prices fall unexpectedly for second month in a row

Nationwide blames April slowdown on ‘affordability pressures’ on back of high mortgage rates

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UK house prices have unexpectedly fallen for a second month running in April, according to the building society Nationwide, which blamed the slowdown on “affordability pressures” amid high mortgage rates

The average house price in April was £261,962, down 0.4% compared with March’s reading on the lender’s monthly index, which had shown a 0.2% month-on-month drop. City forecasters had predicted a 0.2% increase last month.