A round up of the latest property market news, collating survey data, statistics, trends and information about the property market. (All figures below are the most recently available data.)
UK House Price Index
Data source: Land Registry
UK average house price = £226,756, up 0.4% in the month, up 5.2% in the year.
Monthly index (where January 2015 = 100) is 118.9
Stock levels of homes for sale remain close to a historic low. Regionally in England, the South West saw the highest growth annually at 7.5%. London showed the slowest of all UK regions at 2.5%, the 13th consecutive month where London’s annual growth was below the UK average.
Halifax
UK average house price = £223,285, down -0.6% in the month, 0.0% in the quarter, up 2.2% in the year.
The Halifax said it was too early for the impact of stamp duty changes for first time buyers to be reflected, although the number of first time buyers had grown by 6% over the last year. The number of new house sale instructions is still in decline.
Rightmove
England and Wales average house asking price = £300,001 up 0.8% in the month and up 1.5% in the year.
Rightmove saw house prices rise in all regions except the South West, where the average price fell by £131. January was the busiest month ever on Rightmove, with over 141 million visitors to the website.
The Midlands was the fastest selling area, where house prices rose three times faster than the national average.
Nationwide
UK average house price = £211,756 up 0.6% in the month, up 3.2% in the year.
Demand and supply are subdued and mortgage approvals at their weakest level for three years, so the increase in house price growth is surprising.
The number of privately rented homes reached a record high of 4.7 million (an increase of 75% in a decade). 20% of households in England are privately renting (an increase from 13% in a decade).
LSL / Acadata
Average England and Wales house price = £301,477, 0.2% from last month, down -0.4% in the year.
London, the South East and North East all recorded house price falls, although three quarters of authorities recorded annual increases. Blackburn saw the highest growth at 9.4%.
HM Revenue & Customs
The provisional number of UK residential property transaction completions (>£40k) for January 2018 was 102,610, representing an increase of 1.3% between Dec 2017-Jan 2018, and the seasonally adjusted figure is 0.1% lower than January 2017. The number of non-adjusted residential transactions was -23.3% lower than December 2017, and 2.6% higher than January 2017.
The number of non-residential property transactions increased by 0.6% between Dec 2017-Jan 2018. This is -1.1% lower than January 2017.
Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency group in the UK, has published its Monthly Lettings Index for January 2018. It was a record year for rentals, with total rent bill rising to £51.6 billion in 2017. Rental income grew by 2.4% in the year, with the greatest increases in London, the Midlands and the South West.
The rental market is attracting the two youngest generations but a significant number of tenants are older. 10% of renters were born between 1946-1964 (‘baby boomers’).
Land Registry Price Paid Data
Of the 76,327 residential sales received for registration in December, the most expensive residential property sale was a terraced property in the City of Westminster, which sold for £10,075,000. There were 335 residential property sales valued at £1m or more in England and Wales, 180 of which were in Greater London.
The cheapest residential sale was a terraced property in Llanelli which sold for £15,000.
REGIONAL HOUSE PRICES
| UK HPI Regional figures (all percentages are positive unless indicated otherwise) | |||
| December 2017 | Average price (£) GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| England | £243,582 | 0.4% | 5.0% |
| Northern Ireland (Quarter 4 – 2017) | £130,482 | 1.0% | 4.3% |
| Scotland | £148,783 | 0.2% | 7.7% |
| Wales | £154,398 | 1.0% | 5.4% |
| East Midlands | £185,694 | 0.6% | 6.3% |
| East of England | £290,341 | 0.2% | 5.2% |
| London | £484,173 | 0.8% | 2.5% |
| North East | £130,838 | 2.7% | 3.6% |
| North West | £158,370 | 0.2% | 5.9% |
| South East | £322,269 | -0.5% | 4.2% |
| South West | £254,081 | 1.0% | 7.5% |
| West Midlands Region | £191,050 | 0.1% | 6.3% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £156,781 | 0.2% | 2.8% |
UK HPI Average monthly price by property type
| Property type | December 2017 | December 2016 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £342,541 | £325,270 | 5.3% |
| Semi-detached | £213,023 | £201,622 | 5.7% |
| Terraced | £183,085 | £174,168 | 5.1% |
| Flat or maisonette | £204,949 | £195,784 | 4.7% |
| All | £226,756 | £215,500 | 5.2% |
Rightmove regional figures
| February 2018 | Average price (£) GBP | Monthly change % | Annual change % |
| Greater London | 627,591 | 4.4 | -1.0 |
| South East | 400,726 | 0.9 | 1.7 |
| South West | 293,915 | 0.0 | 3.3 |
| East of England | 347,633 | 1.4 | 2.3 |
| West Midlands | 215,808 | 0.8 | 4.9 |
| East Midlands | 217,646 | 1.9 | 6.3 |
| North West | 187,770 | 0.3 | 2.6 |
| Wales | 186,786 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 181,356 | 0.8 | 3.1 |
| North East | 146,295 | 3.6 | 0.3 |
Focus on London -Â Best and Worst (-) annual performers according to:
| Rightmove February 2018 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change % | Annual change % |
| TfL Zone 6 | 482,770 | 0.2 | 1.8 |
| TfL Zone 5 | 481,427 | 3.3 | -0.1 |
| TfL Zone 2 | 758,882 | 5.9 | -1.7 |
| TfL Zone 1 | 1,436,116 | 6.0 | -4.4 |
| LCL Acadata January 2018 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change % | Annual change % |
| Merton | 619,790 | -4.0 | 13.0 |
| Brent | 575,645 | 4.3 | 7.5 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 1,805,275 | -2.1 | -12.9 |
| Southwark | 564,506 | -1.1 | -17.9 |
RICS Survey Overview
The RICS Residential Market Survey for January 2018 reported negative enquiries, sales and instructions. Nationally, prices are edging upwards but in some areas continued to decline.
The most impact is felt on the more expensive areas of the housing market. 67% of respondents reported that sales prices on houses being marketed at over £1 million were sold below the asking price.
Forecasts for the next year are reasonably optimistic in most parts of the country.
Tenant demand increased over the last three months. In London, expectations are negative but elsewhere projections are slightly positive.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Rightmove.co.uk is the UK’s leading property website, displaying details of homes for sale or rent to the largest online audience. It is consistently ranked the number one property website in the UK (source: Experian Hitwise). It has around 90% of all properties for sale and at any time displays a stock of over one million properties to buy or rent, worth around £270 billion. The Rightmove.co.uk site attracts over 130 million visits from home movers each month with time on site averaging over one billion minutes per month (Rightmove data, 2017).
LSL Acad E&W HPI is derived from Land Registry (LR) house price data, seasonally and mix adjusted by property type. © Crown copyright material reproduced with the permission of Land Registry. The prices are smoothed to show underlying trends. LSL Acad E&W HPI includes cash purchase prices and is the only index based upon the complete, factual house price data for England & Wales, as opposed to a sample.
UK HPI: Monthly house price inflation, calculated using data from Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland. This replaces the previous House Price Indices separately published by Office of National Statistics and Land Registry.
All figures within this article are correct at the time of going to press, and are reproduced in good faith. No responsibility will be taken for any decisions taken based on the information contained herein. Always seek professional advice.
Next Monthly Market Fact File due in March 2018.
Back to February 2018 Newsletter
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