House prices will stay the same next year, according to a new study.

House prices will stay the same next year, according to a new study.

Although data from last month showed that house prices were increasing at a fast pace for the first time in around 18 months, Nationwide has predicted that this acceleration is not a trend that is set to continue.

"We expect that house prices will remain fairly flat, with some modest falls in the early part of 2006," the building society said in a statement.

"However we expect that these falls will be confined to the first half of 2006 and that the annual rate of house price growth will be close to zero by the end of the year."

Nationwide did feel however that this does not signal the start of a housing price crash, saying that house price growth cooled this year, "but in a controlled way and consistent with the soft landing that we spoke of at the start of the year".

Currently, house prices are 3.3 per cent higher than they were a year ago, but their growth remains at a slower rate – falling by four fifths in the last year.