British house prices have risen at their slowest annual pace for nearly two years in August, Nationwide Building Society says.

Property values rose by 3.2 per cent this month compared with a year ago, which is down from 3.5 per cent in July – the weakest annual growth since June 2013.

Nationwide said prices across the UK rose by 0.3 per cent on a month-by-month basis in August – taking the average property value to 195,279.

This also marks a slight slowdown on the 0.4 per cent month-on-month rise recorded in July.

The annual pace of price growth is now less than a third of what it was a year ago, hitting double digits for much of last summer, with a 11 per cent annual increase recorded in August 2014.

Nationwide said the slowdown in annual house price growth provides further signs that it may be stabilising close to the level of earnings growth in the UK, which has historically settled at around four per cent.