The Nationwide Building Society has reported that annual house price growth remained subdued at 0.8%.
There was a 0.5% increase in house prices month-on-month, after taking account of seasonal factors.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “Annual house price growth remained below 1% for the 12th month in a row in November, at 0.8%, though this was the strongest outturn since April.
“Indicators of UK economic activity have been fairly volatile in recent quarters, but the underlying pace of growth appears to have slowed as a result of weaker global growth and an intensification of Brexit uncertainty. To date, the slowdown has largely centred on business investment, while household spending has been more resilient.
“With the UK general election due in a few week’s time, we have analysed house price movements in the months around previous elections, and also the 2016 EU referendum.
“Past general elections do not appear to have generated volatility in house prices or resulted in a significant change in house price trends.
“On the whole, prevailing trends have been maintained just before, during and after UK general elections. Broader economic trends appear to dominate any immediate election-related impacts.
“We also examined how activity, in particular mortgage approvals for house purchase, responded to past UK general elections. Here the picture is less clear, but again there does not seem to be any clear impact in the three months either side of a general election.
“While activity slowed in the period immediately following the EU referendum, this was a continuation of a trend that was driven by the introduction of additional stamp duty on second homes earlier in that year.”
