UK households spent a record £226bn to keep a roof over their heads last year, figures showed on Monday, with mortgage borrowers finishing fixed-rate deals particularly hard hit by rising payments.
Overall housing costs have gone up by £66bn over the past five years, a rise of 41%, the property group Savills said.
The rate of increase slowed, with spending up nearly £8bn, or 3.6%, last year compared with £22bn in 2023 and £19bn in 2024.
But Savills identified a particularly large increase in the sums being paid in mortgage interest, which grew by 9% last year, to £53.6bn, making up more than half of the overall rise.
The property firm warned that this trend could continue if economic turmoil caused by US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered persistent inflation.
“In a market where homeowners are fixing their mortgages for longer, the impact of higher interest rates on housing costs – and on households’ ability to spend elsewhere in the economy – tends to have a much longer tail,” said Lucian Cook, the head of residential research at Savills.
“Until recently, 2026 looked set to offer some respite, but that is now less certain given the prospect of another wave of inflation, which mortgage markets are typically quick to price in.”
Last week, the average price of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage topped 5%, up from 4.84% at the end of February, and lenders have been busy pulling deals and moving rates up.
Including regular capital repayments, the bill for 8.8 million mortgage holders reached £114bn in 2025, Savills said, meaning that the average borrower is paying £13,000 a year.
In the rental market, it found that costs had risen more slowly, up 2.75% to £112bn in 2025.
Of the £226bn total, £81bn was paid to private sector landlords, an average of £15,000, while the bill for private renters rose by 27% over the past five years.
London has recorded the smallest percentage increase in overall housing costs during that time, at 36%, compared with 49% in the north-west and 45% in both the north-east and eastern England.
However, London still accounts for by far the largest slice of Britain’s housing costs, at 23.4% of the total.
According to the property website Rightmove, new seller asking prices have risen by an average of £3,023 in March to £371,042, a “typical” seasonal increase of 0.8%. The number of homes for sale remains at an 11‑year high for this time of year, limiting more significant price growth.
Rightmove said the market was “steady” despite global uncertainty created by the Iran conflict, with the number of sales only 2% behind last year’s strong market and 5% above 2024.