According to Nationwide, the UK has a remote risk of a recession. Its data showed that house prices fell by 0.5% in February which is the fourth consecutive month that residential house prices have declined. Also, the annual rate of house price inflation fell from 4.2% to 2.7%.

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “ The trend in prices is clearly weakening, but the size of the drop in the annual rate between January and February perhaps overstates the rate of cooling as it partly reflects the particularly strong increase in prices in February last year. The 3-month on 3-month rate of price growth rate fell to -1% in February, down from -0.4% the previous month. The average price of a typical property now stands at £179,358, an increase of £4,653, or £12.75 per day, over the last 12 months.”