The latest Government house price index has claimed that the average house price in February stood at £224,473 – a rise of 0.2% over January.
For the first time, the index has been published by the Office for National Statistics and not by Communities and Local Government.
But, just as the CLG index has done in the past, the ONS survey puts the average house price considerably above that of the other ‘official’ house price index, the Land Registry.
The Land Registry’s average house price in England and Wales for February was £161,588.
According to the latest ONS survey, house prices rose by just 0.3% in the 12 months to February.
It also says that in February, first-time buyers paid 1.3% more for their properties than they did a year ago. For existing home owners, prices were unchanged.
A very patchy picture showed house prices in Northern Ireland down by 9.7% in the year to February, but up by 1.7% in London, by 1.2% in the South-East, by 1.1% in Scotland and by 0.8% in the South-West.
In all other regions, house prices were down.
In terms of countries within the UK, house prices in England stood at £232,485 in February, in Wales at £151,839, in Scotland £177,354 and in Northern Ireland at £136,263.
Separately, website Zoopla has said that values of residential homes in Britain fell by 1.7% during the first quarter of this year to stand at £215.436.
It means that the average house value is now 2.8% lower than a year ago, says Zoopla.
The website’s data is based on valuations of properties in the UK, not just sales figures. It claims that even property values in London have been falling over the last year, by 2.1%.
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Comments
Rant,
It was 1.3 % on the mortgage not in one lump out of a savings account? - different init
Jonnie
….............thats if its true, you know my views on these stats
"...in February, first-time buyers paid 1.3% more for their properties than they did a year ago."
So they spent 1.3% more to beat the reimposition of a 1% stamp duty deadline?
Does the ONS have anything to say about why they are so out of line with the Land Registry?
Apparently this report also says that new homes increased in value by 7.7% over the year, while resold home values nudged up only 0.2%. As someone involved in property development and construction I do not believe this: it simply cannot be on a like-for-like basis. It seems more likely that builders are focusing on their higher-yielding bigger properties where buyers have substantial existing equity, rather than trying to build large numbers of new small houses where buyers are scarce.
I'd believe the figures more if I knew they were cross-referenced against the data available from EPCs, which all properties for sale and rent are now obliged to have, and the figures were based on £s per square metre. Yes, they could still come up with a headline-grabbing sale price for an "average house" in different areas of the country, but a £ per square metre approach would be much more useful.
Zoopla's figures are really not worth taking into account. In many ways they come from the same stable as Rightmove's. The only truly accurate figures are from the Land Registry. The fun game to play is look at Halifax and Nationwide figures every month. They almost always seem to say the opposite which is always useful for headline writers. Steady house prices give agents a strong workable market and first time buyers seem to becoming happier to end a market where their deposit might at least remain intact for a while. What is of far greater interest to agents is the level of turnover as that is what effects our business far more than short term price movements
Was reading this one, thinking "whatever" and then fortunately Zoopla commented, so glad they did I always use Zoopla information to inform my vendors how the market is. I find they have one of the most accurate property estimate features around.