The Nationwide Building Society has reported that the annual rate of house price growth slowed in March to 3.5%, from 4.5% in February.

House prices fell by 0.3% in the month, after taking account of seasonal effects.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “There was a mixed picture across the UK in Q1. Six regions saw the pace of house price growth accelerate, six saw a deceleration and one (East Midlands) recorded the same rate as the previous quarter. The spread in the annual rate of change between the weakest and strongest performing regions was at its narrowest since 1978 at 6.8 percentage points – the second smallest gap on record.

“The South of England continued to see slightly stronger price growth than the North of England, but there was a further narrowing in the differential. Northern Ireland saw a slight pickup in annual house price growth, while conditions remained relatively subdued in Scotland and Wales.

“The latest English Housing Survey from DCLG revealed a further decline in the home ownership rate to 62.9% in 2016 – the lowest recorded since 1985.

“Over the past decade, there has been a particularly marked decline in the home ownership rate amongst young adults (those aged 25-34), traditionally the segment containing most first time buyers.

“While the last couple of years have seen a slight improvement in the proportion of young adults owning their own home (currently 38%), this remains considerably lower than was the case 10 years ago. The data also reveals a significant fall in home ownership rates amongst those aged 35-44 to just 56% (down from 74% in 2006).