Welcome to the March 2019 Property 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 = £228,147, -0.8% change in the month, 1.7% up in the year. Monthly index (where January 2015 = 100) is 119.7
UK house prices grew by 1.7%, the lowest annual growth to January 2013. Prices in Wales and the East Midlands saw strongest growth, at 4.6% and 4.4%. London’s prices fell by -1.6% in the year. The East of England saw the annual price of houses fall for the first time since October 2011.
House prices for new build properties increased by 5.6% over the year, while existing resold properties increased by 2.8%.
The housing market is generally subdued with Brexit and economic uncertainty.
Halifax
UK average house price = £236,800, up 5.9% in the month, 1.8% in the quarter, 2.8% in the year.
January saw the number of mortgage approvals rise by 3.6% to just above the five year average, at 66,766 approvals.
Rightmove
England and Wales average house asking price = £300,715, up 0.7% in the month and up 0.2% in the year.
At a traditionally optimistic time of year, average house prices of newly marketed properties rose marginally above the two year average to 0.7%, although the number of agreed property sales was 4% lower than the same period last year.
Buyer affordability looks to be improving, with average age growth now recorded at 3.4%.
Nationwide
UK average house price = £211,304, -0.1% change in the month and up 0.4% in the year.
Home ownership has risen to 63.5%, and the number of households with a mortgage rose by 5% over the year although remains 20% lower than the peak in 2000.
House price growth rose marginally in February, to just 0.4% higher than the same period last year.
LSL / Acadata
Average England and Wales house price = £304,739, down -0.2% in the month, down -0.9% in the year.
Acadata recorded average house price reductions for the third successive month, representing a total decline of around £1,000.
Average house prices in the North of England, Midlands and Wales saw positive annual growth, which was neutral in the South West and negative in London, the East and South East.
HM Revenue & Customs
The provisional number of UK residential property transaction completions (over £40,000) for January 2019 was 101,170, representing an increase of 0.8% between Dec 2018-Jan 2019, and the seasonally adjusted figure is 1.3% higher than January 2018. The number of non-adjusted residential transactions was 0.9% higher than January 2018.
The number of non-residential property transactions increased by 0.2% between Dec 2018-Jan 2019. This is 2.4% higher than January 2018.
Land Registry Price Paid Data
Of the 99,372 residential sales received for registration in January, the most expensive residential property sale was a terraced property in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, which sold for £12,650,000. There were 480 residential property sales valued at £1m or more in England and Wales, 282 of which were in Greater London.
The cheapest residential sale was a terraced property in Spennymoor, County Durham, which sold for £17,000.
REGIONAL HOUSE PRICES
| UK HPI Regional figures (all percentages are positive unless indicated otherwise) | |||
| January 2019 | Average price GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| England | £244,567 | -1.0% | 1.5% |
| Northern Ireland (Quarter 4 – 2018) | £136,669 | 1.3% | 5.5% |
| Scotland | £149,036 | 0.6% | 1.3% |
| Wales | £160,232 | -1.3% | 4.6% |
| East Midlands | £192,757 | 0.2% | 4.4% |
| East of England | £288,494 | -1.0% | -0.2% |
| London | £472,230 | -0.3% | -1.6% |
| North East | £125,233 | -3.3% | 0.9% |
| North West | £160,811 | -1.3% | 3.4% |
| South East | £321,174 | -0.5% | 0.1% |
| South West | £253,926 | -1.4% | 0.5% |
| West Midlands | £195,399 | -2.1% | 4.0% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £160,420 | -1.0% | 2.9% |
UK HPI Average monthly price by property type
| Property type | January 2019 GBP | January 2018 GBP | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detached | £349,363 | £339,442 | 2.9% |
| Semi-detached | £214,858 | £210,897 | 1.9% |
| Terraced | £183,520 | £180,567 | 1.6% |
| Flat or maisonette | £203,280 | £203,450 | -0.1% |
| All | £228,147 | £224,418 | 1.7% |
Rightmove regional figures
| February 2019 | Average price GBP | Monthly change % | Annual change % |
| Greater London | 614,182 | 3.4 | -2.1 |
| South East | 395,240 | 1.3 | -1.4 |
| South West | 297,614 | 0.1 | 1.3 |
| East of England | 347,045 | 0.7 | -0.2 |
| West Midlands | 222,647 | 0.7 | 3.2 |
| East Midlands | 223,495 | 0.7 | 2.7 |
| North West | 192,070 | -0.6 | 2.3 |
| Wales | 192,246 | 2.1 | 2.9 |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 187,813 | -0.9 | 3.6 |
| North East | 151,303 | 3.3 | 3.4 |
Nationwide regional figures
| Q4: 3 months to December 2018 | Average Price (£) GBP | Annual % change (this quarter) | Annual % change (previous quarter) |
| N Ireland | £139,599 | 5.8% | 4.3% |
| East Midlands | £184,283 | 4.0% | 4.8% |
| Wales | £156,891 | 4.0% | 3.3% |
| Yorks & H’side | £157,436 | 3.7% | 5.8% |
| West Midlands | £188,163 | 2.9% | 4.1% |
| North West | £160,984 | 2.2% | 4.1% |
| South West | £244,304 | 2.0% | 1.9% |
| East Anglia | £228,014 | 2.0% | 3.0% |
| North | £125,813 | 1.0% | -1.7% |
| Scotland | £147,856 | 0.9% | 2.1% |
| Outer SE | £277,117 | 0.0% | 0.8% |
| London | £466,988 | -0.8% | -0.7% |
| Outer Met | £356,531 | -1.4% | -0.3% |
| UK | £214,178 | 1.3% | 2.1% |
Focus on London -Â Best and Worst (-) annual performers according to:
| Rightmove February 2019 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| Westminster | 1,480,945 | 2.5% | 5.2% |
| Camden | 1,014,811 | -0.1% | 3.9% |
| Hackney | 615,524 | -0.7% | -5.8% |
| Lambeth | 601,368 | -1.7% | -6.7% |
| LCL Acadata January 2019 | Average Price (£) GBP | Monthly change | Annual change |
| Merton | 649,735 | -3.5% | 8.6% |
| Richmond upon Thames | 778,375 | 1.4% | 4.2% |
| City of Westminster | 1,536,923 | 3.4% | -21.1% |
| Kensington & Chelsea | 1,782,859 | -0.6% | -31.0% |
RICS Survey Overview
The RICS Residential Market Survey for February said the biggest challenge to the current property market was Brexit uncertainty, cited by 77% of respondents. A lack of housing stock, affordability issues and taxes were also blamed.
Long term expectations were slower than previously forecast but price growth was expected to resume over the year ahead across much of the UK, with the exceptions of London and the South East where further decline was anticipated.
Tenant demand meant that rental growth was likely to pick up although new landlord instructions were negative for the 29th month in succession.
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 April.
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