Welcome to the May 2020 Property Surveying market fact file – 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 = £231,855, -0.2% change in the month, 2.1% up in the year. Monthly index (where January 2015 = 100) is 121.6
These figures were published for March 2020. Until further notice, further updates have been suspended by the government.
The South West of England saw the greatest growth monthly, at 2.0%. The greatest fall was in Yorkshire and the Humber, where house prices fell -3.6%. London’s annual house price growth was 4.7%.
Halifax
UK average house price = £238,511, down -0.6% in the month, 0.7% up in the quarter, 2.7% in the year.
Halifax warned that it would be difficult to understand the ‘normal conditions’ of the housing market until after the current coronavirus restrictions were lifted. Despite the uncertain future, strong movement was anticipated from buyers and sellers, with a short term effect on house prices. Long term, there was still confidence that the housing market would remain healthy.
England and Wales average house asking price = £312,625, up 3.5% in the year.
Rightmove recorded record activity on its website following the reopening of the housing market in England this month. Nearly 5.2 million visits to the site were 4% higher than a year ago. The private rental market also returned with strength, recording the highest number of unique enquiries in a day since September 2019.
With too few transactions to make meaningful data, Rightmove did not update its asking price figures over the last two months.
UK average house price = £222,915, 0.7% change in the month and 3.7% increase in the year.
The pandemic struck at a time that annual housing growth was gaining momentum in the UK, and house price growth was at the highest since February 2017.
Post-pandemic, the housing market will likely respond according to the performance of the wider economy. Forecasting is difficult, but a significant contraction in economic activity is expected with a rebound as household income and business security stablises.
Average England and Wales house price = £303,189, 0.5% change in the month, 1.0% in the year.
The monthly house price indices for April, May and June have not been published due to the disruption to the housing market.
HM Revenue & Customs
The provisional number of UK residential property transaction completions (over £40,000) for April 2020 was 46,440, representing a seasonally adjusted decrease of -53.4% from April 2019, and -46.1% lower than March 2020.
The number of non-residential property transactions decreased by -45.2 from April 2019, and -22.0% lower than March 2020.
Land Registry Price Paid Data
Overall 54,785 residential sales were received for registration in March. The most expensive residential property sale was in Kensington & Chelsea, London, which sold for £4,500,000. There were 100 residential property sales valued at £1m or more in England and Wales, 71 of which were in Greater London.
The cheapest residential sale was a property in Hartlepool, which sold for £20,000.
Newly built property sales decreased by -39% compared to March 2019.
REGIONAL HOUSE PRICES
| UK HPI Regional figures (all percentages are positive unless indicated otherwise) | |||
| March 2020 | Average price GBP | % annual growth | % monthly change |
| England | £248,271 | 2.2% | -0.1% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Ireland (Quarter 1 – 2020) | 3.8% | 0.2% | |
| Scotland | £141,856 | 1.5% | 0.4% |
| Wales | £161,684 | 1.1% | -2.8% |
| East Midlands | £194,664 | 2.1% | 0.4% |
| East of England | £291,254 | 1.3% | 0.0% |
| London | £485,794 | 4.7% | 1.2% |
| North East | £126,945 | 1.8% | -0.6% |
| North West | £166,202 | 3.4% | 0.2% |
| South East | £323,353 | 2.0% | 0.6% |
| South West | £263,360 | 4.1% | 2.0% |
| West Midlands | £195,917 | 0.4% | -2.3% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £159,208 | -1.0% | -3.6% |
UK HPI Average monthly price by property type
| Property type | March 2020 | March 2019 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £354,304 | £345,433 | 2.6% |
| Semi-detached | £220,269 | £215,930 | 2.0% |
| Terraced | £186,610 | £183,158 | 1.9% |
| Flat/maisonette | £204,849 | £201,004 | 1.9% |
| All | £231,855 | £227,104 | 2.1% |
Rightmove regional figures
| March 2020 | Average price GBP | Monthly change % | Annual change % |
| Greater London | £638,826 | 1.6% | 5.1% |
| South East | £408,796 | 1.2% | 2.7% |
| South West | £313,127 | 1.6% | 3.5% |
| East of England | £408,796 | 1.2% | 2.7% |
| West Midlands | £233,224 | 0.6% | 3.2% |
| East Midlands | £230,783 | 0.7% | 2.7% |
| North West | £201,199 | 0.1% | 2.5% |
| Wales | £199,249 | -0.2% | 2.3% |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | £196,002 | -0.7% | 3.1% |
| North East | £153,694 | 1.6% | 2.9% |
Nationwide regional figures
| Q1: 3 months to March 2020 | Average House Price (£) GBP | Annual % change (this quarter) | Annual % change (previous quarter) |
| N Ireland | £143,438 | 0.7% | 1.0% |
| North West | 168,230 | 4.1% | 1.8% |
| East Midlands | £188,893 | 3.6% | 0.4% |
| West Midlands | £194,047 | 2.5% | 2.7% |
| Scotland | £148,893 | 0.8% | 2.8% |
| Yorkshire & Humber | £164,115 | 4.3% | 1.6% |
| East Anglia | £228,992 | 1.3% | 0.1% |
| Wales | £163,076 | 6.4% | 1.5% |
| North | £129,081 | -0.3% | 2.6% |
| South West | £245,326 | 1.5% | 1.6% |
| Outer South East | £278,838 | 1.7% | -1.0% |
| Outer Met | £358,996 | 0.8% | 0.3% |
| London | £460,266 | 1.0% | -1.8% |
| UK | £217,911 | 2.5% | 0.8% |
| LSL Acadata Regional Data – January 2020 | Average House Price £ GBP | Monthly % change | Annual % Change |
| Greater London | £623,615 | 0.8% | 2.8% |
| South East | £379,689 | 0.3% | 0.0% |
| South West | £291,665 | 0.0% | 0.9% |
| East of England | £325,955 | -0.5% | -2.1% |
| West Midlands | £229,390 | -0.1% | -0.7% |
| East Midlands | £222,761 | 0.1% | 1.2% |
| North West | £196,055 | 0.2% | 2.1% |
| Wales | £193,263 | -0.2% | 3.2% |
| Yorkshire & Humber | £199,731 | 0.4% | 2.3% |
| North East | £165,030 | -0.4% | 1.0% |
Focus on London -Â Best and Worst (-) annual performers according to:
| Rightmove March 2020 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| Lambeth | £656,625 | 1.3% | 8.6% |
| Kensington & Chelsea | £1,611,065 | 2.8% | 6.8% |
| Wandsworth | £797,854 | 1.4% | 0.0% |
| Havering | £401,493 | 2.1% | -0.9% |
| LCL Acadata January 2020 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| Hackney | £687,102 | -1.5% | 14.6% |
| City of Westminster | £1,823,185 | 1.3% | 8.1% |
| Newham | £399,100 | -2.0% | -8.7% |
| Southwark | £595,263 | 1.2% | -25.0% |
RICS Survey Overview
The RICS Residential Market Survey for April 2020 reported deeply negative near term expectations of the housing market.
House prices, rental costs and sales were all expected to fall sharply over the next three months. 80% of those surveyed said they had experience of buyers and/or sellers pulling out of housing transactions. Most contributors believed that house prices would be reduced once the housing market resumed, perhaps by as much as -4.0%.
Rental growth is still anticipated to be around 2.5% per year in the long term.
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 May.
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