The annual growth rate of house prices in the UK slowed to 1.7% in May from 3% earlier, according to data from the Nationwide Building Society published Monday.
The average price of houses was 278,024 pounds sterling, down from 278,880 pounds a month ago.
On a monthly basis, seasonally adjusted house prices were 0.6% lower, against the 0.4% uptick earlier and the expected 0.1% decrease.
Australia's housing auction market cooled in the week ended May 31 as the overall preliminary clearance rate for capital cities hit a new cyclical low, Cotality said in a Monday report.The combined capitals preliminary clearance rate for the week eased to 54.5% from 58.2% in the prior week, marking the lowest reading recorded since April 2020, the data and analytics firm said.Sydney's preliminary clearance rate fell to 51.8% from nearly 57% in the prior week, while Melbourne's declined to just above 58% from 60.2%. Melbourne had the largest share of activity, accounting for 1,264 of the total 2,681 homes taken to auction in the week through May 31.The figure for Sydney represents the city's second-weakest preliminary result so far in 2026, behind only the 49.2% recorded during the week of the federal budget release. Excluding that result, Sydney's clearance rate has not been this low since April 2020."The combination of rising volumes and falling preliminary clearance rates points to a sizeable shift in the demand-supply balance across the country since last spring, with demand facing the headwinds of affordability constraints, three interest rate rises and the deterioration in consumer sentiment, not to mention the policy changes in the federal budget that will discourage investor purchases of existing properties," Cotality said.
Indian manufacturers in May saw an improvement in output, S&P Global said Monday.The latest seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index stood at 55.0 in May, compared with 54.7 in April and the consensus estimate of 54.3 from Investing.com.S&P attributed the rise in activity to quicker increases in buying levels, new orders, and output relative to April, with stockpiling gaining.
National home values in Australia flatlined in May as the housing cycle continued to soften in most markets, with Sydney and Melbourne leading the downturn, Cotality said in a Monday report.Cotality's national home value index was unchanged in May, with headwinds including higher interest rates and a shifting tax policy tilting toward weaker demand.Dwelling values in Sydney and Melbourne declined 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, in May to land roughly 2% and 3% below cyclical highs seen in November 2025. Values also fell across the the Australian Capital Territory but at a comparatively slower pace, according to the report.While values continued to increase in other state capitals, including by 1.5% in Perth and Darwin, the growth is clearly losing steam, Cotality said."While the speed of value change remains very different from city to city, the direction is becoming more consistent, with most markets losing momentum as demand-side headwinds intensify," Cotality research director Tim Lawless said.The report noted that the slowdown in housing demand also shows up in home sales data. The estimated volume of national home sales during the past three months was tracking over 2% lower than a year earlier and about 4% below the five-year average.