The district average reached £230,449 in July, the highest the index has recorded. But June's 11.1% rise has since been revised down to 10.1%.

The average home in Westmorland and Furness was worth £230,449 in July 2026. That is the highest figure the UK House Price Index has ever recorded for this area, in cash terms, on a back series that runs to January 1995.

Prices rose 7.7% over the year and 1.0% on the month. Only seven of England’s 295 local authority districts rose faster.

The figures come from the UK House Price Index, published by HM Land Registry. We take them from the index’s full monthly file, which carries every English district on the same basis, so the ranking is calculated rather than estimated.

Last month’s headline figure has been revised down

This is the part worth knowing before anything else, and we are flagging it because we published the old number ourselves.

In August we reported that prices here rose 11.1% in the year to June, to £230,066, the joint fourth largest rise in England. Those were the figures the Land Registry published at the time.

The same month now reads differently. In the July file, June 2026 is £228,066, a rise of 10.1%, which places the district seventh rather than joint fourth. The average was cut by £2,000 and the annual rate by a full percentage point.

Nothing went wrong. The index is revised every month as more completed sales are registered, and early months are the least settled. It is a reason to treat any single month’s figure as provisional, including this one. Our August report carries a note saying the same.

What rose, and by how much

By property type in July 2026:

  • detached: £391,131, up 7.4% on the year
  • semi-detached: £249,915, up 8.4%
  • terraced: £187,135, up 8.4%
  • flats and maisonettes: £133,389, up 4.0%

The first-time buyer average was £193,348, up 8.1%. Terraced and semi-detached homes are rising fastest here, and flats slowest, which is the opposite of a market being pulled up by second homes at the top end.

Annual house price change, July 2026, Westmorland and Furness and its neighbours Horizontal bar chart of the change in average house price in the year to July 2026. Westmorland and Furness 7.7 per cent, Lancaster 4.9 per cent, Cumberland 3.3 per cent, North Yorkshire 2.5 per cent, and England as a whole 1.1 per cent. Prices here rose seven times faster than England as a whole Change in average house price, year to July 2026. Source: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, full file for July 2026. Westmorland and Furness 7.7% Lancaster 4.9% Cumberland 3.3% North Yorkshire 2.5% England 1.1% Graphic by Kendal News 85 of England's 295 local authority districts recorded a fall over the same year. Average prices in July 2026: Westmorland and Furness £230,449, England £293,479.
Westmorland and Furness recorded the eighth largest annual rise of England's 295 local authority districts in July 2026. Source: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index.

The neighbours are nowhere near it

England as a whole managed 1.1%, to an average of £293,479. Across the county boundary the picture is much quieter:

  • Cumberland: £170,966, up 3.3%
  • Lancaster: £202,966, up 4.9%
  • North Yorkshire: £270,463, up 2.5%

85 of the 295 English districts fell over the same twelve months. This one is in the small group going the other way, and it has been for four months.

Fewer people are actually moving

A record average price does not mean a busy market. Sales volumes lag two months behind prices in this index, and they are falling.

  • 209 homes sold across Westmorland and Furness in May 2026
  • 262 sold in May 2025
  • In the twelve months to May 2026, 3,339 sales, against 3,750 the year before

That is 11% fewer sales in a year. May 2026 was the quietest May here since 2020, when the first lockdown held the figure at 180. Prices are being set by a smaller number of transactions than usual, which is another reason the monthly numbers move about.

What it means for you

This is not a Kendal figure, and the difference matters. Westmorland and Furness is the 2023 merger of South Lakeland, Eden and Barrow-in-Furness, and the district average mixes Kendal and the lakes with Barrow and the Eden valley.

Two things follow.

  • The index is a mean, not a median. A handful of expensive sales pull a mean upwards in a way they cannot pull a median.
  • The district average sits below the Kendal town figure. On completed sales matched to civil parishes, the middle home sale in Kendal parish over the year to 30 June 2026 was £249,000, and £385,000 in the Lakes parish. Our parish by parish breakdown has the rest.

If you are selling, the useful number is the one for your own parish and property type, not the district headline. If you are buying, note that terraced and semi-detached homes are the two types rising fastest here, and that the first-time buyer average has gone up by more than the market as a whole.

If you are budgeting for a move, the practical local pages are council tax bands and bin collection days.

Sources: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index for Westmorland and Furness and the full UK HPI file for July 2026, compared against the full file for June 2026 for the revision. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.