May 2017 Property Surveying Factfile

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICES
Note:  all figures below are the most recently available data.

UK House Price Index – March 2017
Data source: Land Registry

UK Average = £215,848, up 4.1% over the year, a 0.6% decrease over the month
Monthly index (where January 2015 = 100) is 113.2

Halifax – April 2017
UK Average = £219,649, down -0.1% in the month, down -0.2% in the quarter, up 3.8% in the year.

Nationwide – April 2017
UK average = £207,699 down -0.4% in the month, up 0.6% in the quarter, up 2.6% in the year.

LSL / Acadata – April 2017
Average England and Wales = £301,606, up 0.1% from last month, up 3.5% in the year.
Shropshire up 10%
London sales volumes down a fifth in two years.

HM Revenue & Customs
Sales 6% higher than first quarter 2016

eMoov – April 2017
Using data from 150 towns and cities, eMoov’s figures show buyers moving out of major cities that have travel infrastructure improvements and have become too expensive.

Demand from buyers 33.8% (down 17.56% since the end of 2016) reaching: in England 39.4%, Scotland 36.18%, Wales 27.35%.
Largest increases in buyer demand in 2017: Stoke-on-Trent 82.25%, Stockton-on-Tees 77.75%, Walsall 65.09%
Highest level of demand: Rugby 68.29%, Portsmouth 66.7%, Bristol 64.43%
Lowest level of demand: Aberdeen 14.11%, Hartlepool 15.43%, Middlesborough 19.15%

London buyer demand -5% at 32.31%.
Highest buyer demand in London boroughs: Bexley 56.13%, Newham 51.82%, Havering 50.51%.
London commuter towns falling: Guildford -35.84%, Watford -35.73%, Cambridge -29.74%, Reading -27.1%, Brentwood -26.93%
Biggest decreases: Greenwich -60.83%, Lambeth -57.62%, Hounslow 52.69%
Lowest buyer demand in London boroughs: Westminster 10.14%, Kensington and Chelsea 11.49%, Hammersmith and Fulham 13.15%.

Wales top three demand areas: Caerphilly 47.12%, Newport 46.92%, Cardiff 42.89%
Largest increase in buyer demand in Wales 2017: Rhondda Cynon Taf 31.57%, Swansea 28.29%
Lowest buyer demand in Wales: Ceredigion 15.75%, Pembrokeshire 15.54%, Denbighshire 13.36%
Biggest falls in Wales: Bridgend -13.47%, Monmouthshire -9.63%, Neath Port Talbot -3.22%

REGIONAL HOUSE PRICES

UK HPI Regional figures (all percentages are positive unless indicated otherwise)
March 17

Average price (£) GBP

Monthly change % Annual change %
England £232,530 -0.6% 4.4%
Northern Ireland
(Quarter 4 – 2016)
£124,007 -0.8% 4.3%
Scotland £137,139 -1.0% 0.7%
Wales £147,746 1.4% 4.3%
East Midlands £176,213 -0.2% 6.7%
East of England £277,127 -0.8% 6.7%
London £471,742 -1.5% 1.5%
North East £122,298 -1.3% -0.4%
North West £150,250 -0.6% 6.2%
South East £311,514 -0.5% 3.8%
South West £240,222 -0.7% 2.8%
West Midlands Region £180,293 0.3% 6.5%
Yorkshire and The Humber £149,606 -0.6% 4.0%

UK HPI Average monthly price by property type

Property type March 2017 March 2016 Difference
Detached £324,927 £313,564 3.6%
Semi-detached £203,177 £192,884 5.3%
Terraced £174,036 £167,656 3.8%
Flat or maisonette £195,830 £189,180 3.5%
All £215,847 £207,333 4.1%

 

Rightmove regional figures
April 2017 Average price (£)

GBP

Monthly change

%

Annual change

%

Greater London 636,777 -2.0 -1.5
South East 418,489 1.3 2.6
South West 304,370 2.8 3.2
East of England 349,269 2.8 5.3
West Midlands 215,784 1.4 5.0
East Midlands 205,065 2.2 4.3
Wales 186,172 7.6 4.0
North West 186,096 2.5 3.5
Yorkshire & Humberside 180,407 1.5 3.3
North East 150,350 2.4 -0.7

 

FOCUS ON LONDON Average Price (£)

GBP

Monthly change

%

Annual change

%

Best and Worst (-) performers according to:
Rightmove April 2017
City of Westminster 2,146,132 1.5 14.1
Haringey 671,974 7.4 11.2
Hounslow 521,564 -4.8 -10.5
Camden 1,012,479 -31.2 -12.0
 
LSL Acadata February 17
Haringey 674,979 3.5 19.6
City of London 848,330 0.2 -10.5
Havering 388,914 0.6 8.0
Waltham Forest 457,893 1.2 8.6

Figures in bold are the top and bottom of the scale, figures in square brackets are for information only

Figures exclude the City of London, due to small number of transactions

RICS Survey Overview
The RICS Residential Market Survey for April 2017 (published 11th May 2017) reports that sales have declined slightly over the month and the number of new buyer enquiries is continuing to edge even lower, together with the number of new instructions which also weakened.

The number of properties becoming available fell for fourteenth consecutive month. The countrywide uncertainty generated by the early election and stamp duty changes are deterring sellers, causing a reduction in new instructions and a general lack of stock on the market. Potential buyers with fewer properties to choose from are holding back. The trend is expected to continue at least in the near future.

The shortage of housing stock has maintained the increase in house prices nationally, although Central London declined for the thirteenth month.

RICS reports that house price growth in East Anglia has: “slowed noticeably in recent months and is one of only a few regions in the UK that did not report an increase in prices – the North East was another of these regions. The North West returned the strongest net balance, with 67 per cent of respondents noting higher figures in April – the seventh successive month that the figure has been above 50 per cent.

“The lack of choice for would-be buyers across the UK appears to be one influence dampening overall sales market activity. New buyer enquiries were again broadly unchanged and have now failed to see any meaningful growth since November of last year.”

In the rental market, tenant demand is: “rising moderately although momentum does appear to have faded over the past six months”.

Once more, landlord instructions were relatively flat. In London, tenant demand appears to have stabilised, ending a period of continued deterioration.

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 110 million visits from home movers each month who view in excess of 1.5 billion pages (Rightmove data, 2015).

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 June 2017.