RAK Market Intelligence — March 2026

March's price index fell 0.41% month-on-month, from 334.28 to 332.90. 

The rent index fell 0.52%, from 147.49 to 146.71 — reversing February's 

2.05% gain in full. It is the first month in this series where both indices 

declined in the same period. February's rent rise now reads as a one-month 

anomaly rather than the start of a structural shift.

Year-on-year, the price comparison has decelerated from 46.44% to 39.01%. 

That seven-point compression is partly a base effect: the strong gains of 

early 2025 are now embedded in the comparison, suppressing the headline 

figure even without a change in underlying trajectory. Gross yield was 

effectively flat at 2.93%, down one basis point.

The macro backdrop was unchanged. ECB held at 2.00% on 19 March, its 

assessment shaped by energy price uncertainty from the regional conflict. 

BoE held unanimously at 3.75% on the same day, against first-quarter UK 

GDP growth of approximately 0.1%. Neither decision provides a 

rate-differential catalyst in either direction.

March does not signal distress. A 0.41% monthly decline against a base 

that has risen 39% year-on-year is not a structural reversal. But the 

question raised in February — whether deceleration is consolidation or 

the beginning of a more sustained change in direction — is not yet answered. 

Two consecutive months of slowing price growth, one concurrent rent 

decline, and a macro environment that has become materially more uncertain 

than it was six months ago. The picture is more cautious than it was.