Evidence of a slowdown in the amount of activity in the UK housing market is building as house price growth eased even more during the month of May. According to the Nationwide, May posted house price growth of only 0.2% which matched the level of growth from the previous month. During the three months to June, annual house price growth hit 4.7% in May which was a fall from 4.9% in April. March reached 5.7% for the year. The stamp duty which took effect on April 1^st is the area many are looking to for a reason why.

Data from the Bank of England is even more confirmation of the cool down. Just over 66,000 home mortgage loans were approved in April which is an eleven month low and far off the average of 71,000 which was posted during the last six months.

Robert Gardner of Nationwide commented on the latest data, saying: "House purchase activity is likely to fall in the months ahead, given the number of purchasers that brought forward transactions.

"The recovery thereafter may also be fairly gradual, especially in the [buy-to-let] sector, where other policy changes, such as the reduction in tax relief for landlords from 2017, are likely to exert an ongoing drag.

"Nevertheless, healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs are expected to underpin a steady increase in housing market activity once stamp duty-related volatility has passed, providing the economic recovery remains on track."

The average home cost across the country has now reached £204,368, according to the Nationwide.