Lloyds says house prices fell. Nationwide says they rose.

If you are selling this autumn and you read the headlines this morning, you will have seen two different markets described on the same day. One says prices are falling for the first time in almost three years. The other says they are still rising. Both are accurate. They are measuring different things.

What did Lloyds actually report?

The Lloyds House Price Index for August 2026, published on 7 September 2026, put the average UK house price at £298,468. Prices were 0.2% lower over the month and 0.4% lower than in August 2025. That annual figure matters because it is the first annual fall the index has recorded since November 2023.

• Average price in August 2026: £298,468.
• Monthly change: down 0.2%.
• Annual change: down 0.4%, the first annual fall since November 2023.
• Prices are still 0.2% higher than they were at the start of 2026.
• Northern Ireland recorded the strongest annual growth in the UK at 7.4%.

Amanda Bryden, Head of Mortgages at Lloyds, said average house prices have stayed relatively stable for almost two years, moving within a narrow range over that period despite the uncertainty of this year. This is the same index that was called the Halifax House Price Index until July 2026. The name changed. The method did not.

Why does Nationwide say the opposite?

A house price index is a measure built from one organisation's own sample of transactions, not a count of every home in the country. Nationwide's index for August 2026, published on 1 September 2026, put the average UK house price at £275,465, up 0.2% on the month once seasonal patterns are stripped out and up 1.6% over the year.

Nationwide draws its figures from mortgages it approves. Lloyds draws its figures from mortgages Lloyds and Halifax approve. Those are two different sets of buyers, buying different homes, in different places, at different price points. The two lenders are not contradicting each other about one shared set of facts. They are each describing their own customers.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said market activity and house prices have remained subdued in recent months because of economic uncertainty, and that activity should regain momentum in the quarters ahead if energy prices settle and confidence returns.

What is every house price index saying right now?

Five widely reported measures are running at once, and no two of them cover the same month, the same stage of a sale, or the same set of buyers. Set side by side, the spread on the average UK home is £26,468.

The Rightmove figure sits far above the rest for a simple reason. It measures what sellers ask, not what buyers pay. In August 2026 new sellers cut asking prices by 2.0%, or £7,360, the largest August drop since 2018 and well beyond the ten year August average of 1.3%. Rightmove also cut its 2026 national forecast from growth of 2% to somewhere between 0% and minus 2%.

Which index should a seller believe?

None of them, as a statement about your home. Each is a national average built for economists and lenders, and an average is a single number stretched across every home in the country. Northern Ireland ran at 7.4% annual growth in the Lloyds figures for August. London asking prices fell 3.1% in a single month in the Rightmove figures for the same period.

• Use lender indices to read the national mood, not your valuation.
• Use HM Land Registry data to see what homes near you actually sold for, because it records completed sales including cash buyers.
• Use asking price data to read what your competition is doing this month, which is the number that shapes your listing.
• Use two or more real valuations from agents who work your street to price the home itself.

A national average has never sold a house. The sold prices on your own street have.

Does a falling index mean I have missed my moment?

No. A 0.4% annual fall on a £298,468 average is around £1,200 across a whole year, and it sits inside a market Lloyds describes as having moved within a narrow range for almost two years. That is a flat market being reported by five different instruments, not a market in retreat.

What has changed for sellers this autumn is competition rather than value. Rightmove reported the number of homes for sale at a twelve year high in August 2026, and Zoopla reported 5% more homes for sale in July 2026 than a year earlier while agreed sales ran 6% lower. More choice for buyers is what turns a flat market into a slow one, and the answer to that is accurate pricing rather than patience alone.

What should you do about it this week?

1. Look up what similar homes on your street actually sold for in the last six months, using HM Land Registry sold price data rather than a portal estimate.
2. Look at what is currently listed near you and at what price, because those are the homes a buyer will compare yours against.
3. Get more than one valuation, and ask each agent to show you the sold evidence behind their figure rather than the figure alone.
4. Judge the agents on the evidence and the strategy, then set your asking price from that, not from a headline.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, and the seller stays anonymous until they choose to connect. That is the point of comparing more than one: two agents looking at the same house and the same sold evidence will still reach different numbers, and seeing the reasoning side by side is how you tell a well argued valuation from an optimistic one.