The Money Stats – January 2026

Welcome to the January 2026 edition of The Money Statistics, The Money Charity’s comprehensive monthly round-up of statistics showing how we use money in the UK, kindly funded by Vanquis.

Striking Numbers from the January Money Statistics: 

Housing Prices:
  • UK annual house price growth slowed to 0.6% in December 2025, down from 1.8% in November. On a monthly basis, average house prices fell by 0.4% to £271,068 in December compared with November.
  • In November 2025, the average house price was highest in London (£553,258) and lowest in the North East (£166,568), according to HM Land Registry. The highest rates of growth were in Northern Ireland (7.1%) and the North East (6.8%), while the lowest increases were in London (-1.2%), Wales (0.7%) and the South East (1.0%).
  • House price affordability improves for the UK’s first-time buyers. The ratio between average house prices for first-time buyers and average full-time employees’ earnings fell to 4.7 in the last three months of 2025, well below its peak of 5.8 in 2022.
Consumer Confidence:
  • Consumer confidence in the UK has been negative or flat for 10 consecutive years, with the last positive headline in January 2016.
  • The GfK Consumer Confidence Index increased by 1 point to -16 in January 2026, from -17 in December 2025.
  • The index measuring changes in personal finances over the past 12 months increased by 3 points to -3, seven points higher than January 2025, according to GfK. The forecast for personal finances over the next year is up 4 points to 6, eight points higher than the same time last year.

Get the full picture and many more fascinating facts about money in the UK in our monthly Money Statistics. Previous editions can be found in the archive.