House prices up 4.6% over year, says Land Registry, with average property values in London FIVE TIMES higher than North East
08-29-2015
- House prices rise 1.7% monthly in July
- Average property value now sits at £183,861
- Reading saw biggest rise in last 12 months with prices up 13.6%
By Lee Boyce for www.Thisismoney.co.uk
House prices in England and Wales last month were up 4.6 per cent compared to a year ago, according to latest the figures from the Land Registry.
It means the average property value now sits at £183,861, with monthly prices edging up 1.7 per cent in July compared to June.
The figures, which lag a month behind other house price indexes, shows the region with the most significant annual price increase is the East of England with a surge of 8.9 per cent.
House prices: The Land Registry statistics show the East of England had the biggest rise in property values in the last year
This could be driven by people choosing to sell up in London and deciding to move further afield ramping up demand in areas outside of the capital.
London itself saw prices rise 8.2 per cent, with the South East up 8.1 per cent. Property values have risen slowest in the North East over the last 12 months, up just 0.4 per cent.
It means the average home in the capital is nearly five times more expensive than in the North East - £488,782 versus £100,670, as the gap continues to grow.
Reading saw the strongest house price growth in the last year, with prices in the Berkshire town up a whopping 13.6 per cent on July 2014.
Booming South East: The map shows values in the South East are soaring - although pockets of London are not growing as fast as last year
Andrew Bridges, managing director of estate agent Stirling Ackroyd, said: 'Property prices in the East of England have overtaken the capital – but this isn't the full picture.
'London is a microcosm of the whole country, with its own hotspots. And just like the rest of England, the capital's strongest demand for homes is in the East.
'Here London's start-up hubs are driving local industry to global heights. And this is reflected in an eastwards shift in property prices. Hackney, for example, has seen annual house price growth five times faster than Kensington & Chelsea.'
Guy Meacock, head of the London office of buying agency Prime Purchase, says: 'While stamp duty may have stunted the housing market at the top end, overall it is in a much more sensible place.
'Buyers are realising they need to be invested at least five years and preferably ten, rather than one to three years, so those coming to the market are doing so for the longer term.
'There might not be the number of buyers as in the past but they are better quality and more committed.'
Slowdown: The annual growth is nowhere near as high as last year. At one point, London recorded 20% property value growth
ANNUAL HOUSE PRICE GROWTH
East - 8.9%
London - 8.3%
West Midlands - 3.2%
East Midlands - 5.1%
South East - 8.2%
Yorkshire & The Humber - 3.1%
South West - 4.2%
North East - 0.4%
North West - 1.4%
Wales - 1.5%
Elsewhere, the figures show the number of completed house sales in England and Wales decreased by 15 per cent to 65,619 compared with 77,488 in May 2014.
May's figures, which are the latest set the report carries, are likely to be skewed because of the uncertainty created by the 2015 general election.
The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1million also decreased by 21 per cent to 878 from 1,113 a year earlier.
Encouragingly, repossessions in England and Wales decreased by 47 per cent to 496 compared with 937 in May 2014.
The Land Registry data comes a day after Nationwide Building Society released its monthly index, which indicted house prices rose at their slowest annual pace for nearly two years in August.
Prices nudged ahead 0.3 per cent on a monthly basis in August taking the average property value to £195,279, Britain's largest building society said. This marked a slight slowdown on the 0.4 per cent monthly rise recorded in July.