You may have woken up this morning to the news that the latest data and analysis from Nationwide has revealed that, for the first time since 2009, UK house prices have “fallen” for a third consecutive month.

The data for May showed that annual house price growth dipped to 2.1%, the weakest in almost four years, providing “further evidence that housing market is losing momentum”.

Well, that’s not a price fall, it’s a slow down in growth which is a completely different matter and a proper grown up institution like the Nationwide should know better than to scaremonger and misrepresent the facts.

The Nationwide supposedly analysed house price movements in the months around previous elections, and also last year’s EU referendum, and found that past general elections do not appear to have generated volatility in house prices or resulted in a significant change in house price trends or mortgage approvals.

Well, the details of that analysis are a mystery, but ask any estate agent and they will tell you that every election (and the referendum) leads to a hiatus in the market as buyers and sellers await the outcome of the inevitable uncertainty that surrounds an election process.

Michael Foundly