House prices return to pre-pandemic levels

March 30, 2025 by Alan

House Prices

The latest figures to be released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the price of homes throughout Wales and England is now back at the level it was prior to the pandemic.

These figures are contained in the new housing affordability report, and they reveal that prices rose steadily over the past three years. In the time period from 2021 to 2024, the average price of a house went up by 1%. During that same period, there was a 20% rise in average earnings. It left the average English house price at £290,000, while in Wales it is £201,000. That is 7.7 and 5.9 times the average annual salary respectively.

The rise in house prices across that time follows on from a period when they fell dramatically. From 2020 to 2021, there was a steep drop in the average price of a home across both Wales and England. That was the period when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its height.

What the recovery in prices means is that fewer regions now have affordable housing. The threshold for affordability is set at less than five times the average annual income. In total, 9% of authorities have prices at that level, which adds up to 27 of them.

It is the highest number in a decade, but still well below where it was in 1997. Back then, 88% of authorities had prices below the threshold.

Mortgage advisors with the CeMAP qualification will know that this is down to demand outstripping supply.