Year to year, the housing market can feel like something of a rollercoaster as prices rise and fall, but that's nothing compared to the dramatic shift in property value over the decades. We've looked back through Nationwide's House Price Index to see how house prices have changed each year since 1963, along with key events that defined each 12-month period. Click or scroll on to find out how much you’d have paid for a property the year you were born, to now...
1963 went down in history for all the wrong reasons, at least in the US. Most notably, it was the year when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during his third year in office. At that time the average house in the UK cost as little as £2,840. That’s around £60,818 in today’s terms – bargain!
This was the year the world went crazy for The Beatles with their stratospheric hits including 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'Can’t Buy Me Love'. It wasn’t just their singles you could buy on the cheap though – the average house went for just £3,104 (£64,327 today).
As the Vietnam War worsened, tens of thousands of supporters of the anti-war movement gathered in Washington to protest outside of the White House. Meanwhile, in the UK, house prices continued to grow – you’d have been looking at paying around £3,353 for the average property at the time (£66,340 now).
London was at the heart of the fashion scene in the mid-60s as bold patterns, flowery shirts and miniskirts ruled the roost. Oh, and England won the World Cup. The average house price then was £3,542 (equal to £67,478 in 2020).
When Twiggy, the world’s first supermodel, was thrust into the limelight – and a Vogue photoshoot in April 1976 changed the fashion world forever – you could buy a house in the UK for a mere £3,735 (that’s £69,328 today).
The assassination of Martin Luther King sent shockwaves through the world in 1968. The civil rights leader was fatally shot at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis Tennessee. House prices remained steady in the UK – the average price was £4,010, or £71,122 in current terms.
One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind made 1969 go down in history thanks to the crew of Apollo 11 and astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Back on Earth, houses in the UK cost an average of £4,222 (that’s £71,067 now).
The 70s came in with a bang: music was having its heyday and the largest-ever rock festival at the time took place on the Isle of Wight, with over 600,000 fans attending. House prices were rising too; the average home went for £4,480 (or £70,871 in current terms).
1971 saw house prices rise to £5,106 (worth about £73,807 today). The year was also an iconic one for environmental activists, with the founding of Greenpeace marking the start of an eco-revolution. The organisation was created when a group set sail to an island off the coast of Alaska to protest a US nuclear weapons test – the boat was named 'The Greenpeace'.
1972 marked a dark year in world history after 11 Israeli athletes were killed at the Munich Summer Olympics in what was then West Germany. The same year the UK witnessed a slight surge in house prices, with the average growing to £6,960 (£93,915 today).
The average house cost £9,045 (worth £111,867 now) in 1973, the year the Sydney Opera House first opened. The iconic architectural masterpiece was designed by Jørn Utzon, who won an international competition searching for designs for the county's national opera house.
An eventful few years in American politics culminated in Richard Nixon being forced to resign after his involvement in the Watergate scandal came to light. Over in the UK, the average house sold for £10,078 (£107,411 in 2020).
In the year Bill Gates and Paul Allen joined forces to create Microsoft, inflation rates in the UK continued to skyrocket. Property prices remained steady though, averaging £10,846 (that’s £93,043 to you and me).
While Concorde dominated the news with the launch of its first commercial flights, cutting transatlantic journey times to just 3.5 hours, house prices in the UK went up to £11,866 (£87,344 now).
The year the world was mourning the death of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, who passed away at the age of 42 in Memphis, Tennessee, you’d have been paying £12,805 for the average home (equivalent to £81,361 today).
1978 was the year video games went big, mainly thanks to that arcade favourite Space Invaders, developed in Japan. That year houses in the UK were going for an average of £15,261 (worth £89,537 today).
1979 was a big year for British politics. As Margaret Thatcher came to power, making history as the UK’s first female prime minister, average house prices rose to £19,830 (worth £102,601 today).
With the dawn of the 80s, UK house prices continued surging, with the average home now costing £23,288 (£102,124 in today’s money). That year, a US-led boycott saw 60 countries pull out from the Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
The year Lady Diana married Prince – now King – Charles, the average UK home cost a mere £23,954 (worth £93,899 now). The wedding was held at St Paul's Cathedral on 29 July and their nuptials drew a global television audience of around 750 million people.
As the UK and Argentina fought over ownership of the Falkland Islands, house prices in the UK went down in relative terms, hovering around the £24,851 mark (that’s £89,693 in today’s money).
In 1983, house prices in the UK had risen to £27,3623 (worth £95,324 in 2020). That year also saw the launch of the iconic Mario Bros. arcade game, which was developed by Nintendo. Since then, the franchise has spawned more than 200 different games.
If you were living in the UK in 1984, 'Do They Know It’s Christmas?' was probably played in your house over the festive period, thanks to Bob Geldof and co., who went on to organise Live Aid the following summer. Back then houses cost an average of £31,076, which is a mere £102,149 in today’s money.
As the technology world marched on with the launch of Microsoft Windows 1.0, its first iteration, which landed in November 1985, house prices in the UK hit £34,378 – or £106,524 when inflation is taken into account.
When reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station exploded in 1986, it turned a once-thriving community into a permanent ghost town. In the UK, average house prices that year reached £37,627. That equates to £112,754 today.
Black Monday saw the stock market in the United States plunge 22% in a single day, causing a global financial crash. Meanwhile, over on UK shores, the average home at the time would have set you back £43,164 (or £124,166 today).
When NASA space shuttle flights resumed, following the Challenger disaster two years earlier which claimed the lives of seven astronauts, you’d have been looking to pay around £51,405 (or £140,965 today) for a house in the UK.
The year the reunification of East and West Germany was announced and the Berlin Wall finally fell, UK house prices soared to £61,514 (that’s £156,512 in today’s money) – but this market peak wasn’t to last...
In February 1990, the world celebrated the release of Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader who spent 27 years in prison. Back in the UK, the average house price dropped a little to £57,683 (or £134,079 now).
In August 1991, the world's first website was created. If you were buying your first property in the UK that year, you’d have been in luck – house prices dropped fractionally again, to an average of £54,626 (equivalent to £119,935 today) as the economic bubble burst.
The birth of the Euro Disney Resort, now known as Disneyland Paris, coincided with a further drop in house prices in the UK – you’d have been looking at paying £51,815 on average in 1992. That's £109,661 in current terms.
In July 1993, the Japanese island of Okushiri was struck by a devastating tsunami, following the Hokkaidō earthquake. Waves of up to 10 metres crashed onto coastlines and around 239 people perished. Back on UK soil, the average British house would have set you back £51,211 (that’s £106,684 now).
1994 was a memorable year for England and France, as the Channel Tunnel officially connected the two countries together for the first time in history. On the UK side, the average home rose marginally to £51,633 – equivalent to £105,028 right now.
1995 was the year of the infamous trial of O.J. Simpson, the former professional football star who was accused of murder, a case that's been serialised by Netflix in recent years. Across the water, UK house prices averaged at £51,245, which is around £100,748 in today’s money.
If you were born in 1996, you share your birth-year with Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have ever been cloned. In the UK, house prices rose a little, averaging around £53,394. If inflation is taken into account, that equates to £102,498 today.
1997 was a year marked by the tragic death of Princess Diana. Her funeral was watched by around 2.5 billion people around the world, making it one of the biggest televised events in history. The same year, the average UK home sold for £59,199, a pretty significant rise that's equivalent to £110,184 now.
While Russia suffered a major financial crisis in 1998, with the rouble tumbling a shocking 70% in value, UK house prices faired better, rising again to £65,201 on average (£117,333 in current terms).
The end of the 1990s saw UK house prices rocket yet again, hitting an average of £71,122 (£126,047 in today’s money). In the same year, a momentous milestone was hit as the six-billionth person in the world was born.
Many will remember 2000 as the year Air France Flight 4590 tragically crashed after taking off from Paris on a routine flight to New York, leaving no survivors. In the same year, UK house prices rose fast again, hitting £80,366 on average – that’s £138,338 in today’s terms.
On 11 September 2001, the World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed during a devastating terror attack that shook the world. In the same year as the atrocity, UK house prices reached £88,799 (£150,193 in current money) on average.
As the world marked Queen Elizabeth II’s 50th year on the throne with a grand, international celebration, house prices in her kingdom rocketed drastically again, to an average of £106,407, or £177,024 today.
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq with a combined force of troops from the UK, Australia and Poland. During the intervention, UK house prices continued to race ahead again to £127,246 (£205,743 today).
230,000 people were killed in the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which struck 14 countries on Boxing Day. The same year, UK house prices climbed significantly again, to £148,658, or £233,412 in 2020 terms.
In 2005, the Catholic Church saw a shake-up when Pope John Paul II passed away and Benedict XVI was anointed pope. The same year, UK houses sold for an average of £156,325 (£238,709 in relative terms).
2006 was take-off for the UK housing market, as well as for the New Horizons Probe, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to explore Jupiter and Pluto. That year, house prices climbed once again to £166,470 (£246,328 in today’s money).
By 2007, UK house prices had risen to an average of £181,364 in the UK (£257,337 in current terms). But it wasn’t to last – a global economic crisis sent values tumbling and led to a run on Northern Rock, as people queued to withdraw their money.
Citigroup was the largest bank to suffer from the global financial crisis, but UK banks had to be bailed out too. House prices plunged in major markets, although the UK was resilient for a while, with the average home in the UK having a price tag of £168,974 (equivalent to £230,561 today) this year.
As the US welcomed President Barack Obama into the White House as the 44th president, UK property prices fell slightly. If you were house-hunting in 2009, you could buy a place for an average of £156,512 (£214,698 now).
In 2011, house prices had fallen fractionally again to £165,131 (worth around £205,818 today). The same year, the Arab Spring anti-government protests were well underway, ending with the fall of Gaddafi and the liberation of Libya.
2012 saw Austrian Felix Baumgartner break the record for the world’s highest skydive, reaching a maximum velocity of 833.9mph in his 24 mile-high leap. Back on Earth, the UK housing market was stabilising, with house prices averaging £163,628 (that’s £197,598 today).
The year Edward Snowden leaked information about the NSA’s PRISM mass surveillance program, shocking the world with the revelations, the average UK home cost £168,928 (worth around £197,981 now).
While the world was shocked by the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014, which vanished with 239 people on board, UK house prices were heading upwards again, averaging £185,620 (£212,526 in current terms).
2015 was a big year for the British royal family as Prince William and the Princess of Wales welcomed their second child, Princess Charlotte. During this period, UK house prices continued to rise, averaging £193,900 across the UK, which equates to around £219,829 now.
2016 not only saw Britain vote to leave the European Union, in a move that would quickly be coined 'Brexit', but it also saw the continued rise of UK house prices. On average in 2016, homes cost UK buyers £203,771 (that's £227,079 in today's money).
On 20 January 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. The first leader of the free world with no political or military experience, his inauguration ushered in a new political era. During the same year, UK house prices continued to increase and cost, on average, £209,935 – that's £225,852 in current terms.
There was cause for another royal celebration in 2018, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot at Windsor Castle in a high-profile soiree attended by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney and the Beckhams. At the same time, UK house prices steadily rose, reaching an average of £214,163, or £222,955 today.
2019 saw plenty of big headlines, from the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son, Archie, to the impeachment of then-president Donald Trump, but one in particular grounded the world – Paris' iconic Notre Dame Cathedral tragically caught fire. Meanwhile in the UK, house prices increased even further, with the average property costing buyers £215,333, or £218,564 with inflation taken into account.
Of course, 2020 will forever be known for one thing: Covid-19. The pandemic caused global lockdowns across more than 90 countries and half of the world's population, along with economic uncertainty, mass job losses and widespread recessions. And yet, amazingly, property prices in the UK only went up, this time averaging £223,050.
2021 brought with it a new political shift as Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States. His inauguration was big news, although not quite as big as Michelle Obama’s outfit, or Bernie Sanders' winter wear (remember all those memes?). Despite 2020 bringing the world to a halt, UK house prices rose once again in 2021 reaching an average of £270,708.
2022 was a year of extreme highs and lows. In June, UK homes rolled out the bunting to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, only to mourn the monarch's passing just three months later. Putin declaring war on Ukraine caused additional unrest, while the FIFA World Cup in Qatar sparked excitement and controversy in equal measure. Despite the continuing cost of living crisis, house prices have still risen by almost 10% this year, resulting in a peak average of £294,559. While industry experts are predicting house prices will take a tumble in 2023, without a crystal ball, we can only wait and see...
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