Property values continue to surge despite cost of living pressures, the building society says.
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House prices grew at the fastest annual pace for more than 17 years in March despite the cost of living crisis, according to Nationwide.
Annual growth in house prices hit 14.3% in February, the mortgage lender said, the strongest pace since November 2004.
The cost of a typical UK home reached a new record high of £265,312, rising £33,000 in the past year, it said.
Prices are being pushed higher by robust demand, limited supply and a strong jobs market, it added.
Nationwide, which is one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders, said the housing market had “a surprising amount of momentum given the mounting pressure on household budgets and the steady rise in borrowing costs”.
Households in the UK are being squeezed by a cost of living crisis, with prices rising at their fastest rate for 30 years as fuel, energy and food costs surge.
Mortgage costs are also rising after the Bank of England raised interest rates three times in four months to try to help lower that price inflation.
But these factors have not dampened acceleration in house price growth, Nationwide said.
House prices are now more than fifth higher than early 2020 when the pandemic hit.
“A combination of robust demand and limited stock of homes on the market has kept upward pressure on prices,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist.
The UK labour market is strong – job vacancies hit a record high in October last year – and unemployment has continued to fall, which may have helped the buoyancy in the housing market, he said.
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Some people built up “significant savings” during lockdowns, which is “likely to have helped prospective homebuyers raise a deposit”, Mr Gardner said.
Nationwide estimates that households put away an extra £190bn above pre-pandemic savings due to the impact of Covid on spending patterns.
“This is equivalent to around £6,500 per household, although it is important to note that these savings were not evenly spread, with older, wealthier households accruing more of the increase,” he added.
Despite these factors, Nationwide expects house price growth to slow in the year ahead, due to high inflation rates and interest rate rises.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), an independent body that makes economic forecasts for the government, predicted in October last year that house prices would fall in 2022.
It said last week that people in the UK were facing the biggest drop in living standards on record as wages fail to keep pace with rising prices.
Many people took stock of how they lived and worked during Covid lockdowns, leading to a race for space among buyers that was fuelled by a stamp duty holiday.
In recent months, there has been a shortage of homes on the market to match demand, which has pushed up asking prices.
Gabriella Dickens, senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that the housing market was going from “strength to strength” but that March “probably marks the peak for house price growth”.
“For starters, mortgage rates look set to rise further in the coming months,” she said.
“In addition, we expect housing demand to be hit by a sharp drop in households’ real disposable incomes.”
