We take little notice of month on month and even year on year analysis as few people ‘trade’ properties in this way and it’s not necessarily the best indicator of when is a good time to buy or sell. What we are more interested in is tracking long term trends and seeing whether these continue or are changing and then working out the impact on different market sectors. For example falling prices can be good news for first time buyers and those trading up, but not people trading down.
Download my full report for April 2015
What's happening right now?
The Nationwide reported average property price of £189,454 for March 2015, which is up around 5% year on year, when compared to the same time last year.
The Land Registry average price for February 2015 of £180,252, a year on year increase of 6.5%.
The Acadata average property prices in March 2015 are £275,123, which is up 5.6% year on year.
Download my full report for April 2015
What's happened over the last couple of years?
‘Average prices’ for mortgaged properties were £162,245 (Jan 13) vs £189,454 for Nationwide Mar 15.
Land Registry’s average sold prices (including some cash sales) started at £160,839 in January 2013 and are now at £180,252 in February, having shown only small changes over the last six months (Feb 15).
Acadata’s average property prices for all properties were £227,478 in Jan 2013 vs £275,123 (Mar 15).
Download my full report for April 2015
How far away are property prices from the heights achieved in 2007/8?
With recent improvements in property prices in some areas of the UK, compared to the heights of 2007/08, property prices, are on average, recovering or increasing beyond recession levels. Acadata which measures cash sales and uses a different method of calculation for house price averages suggest prices are quite a bit higher than the peak seen before the crash. Mortgaged properties (ie 50% of those owned in England) are now seeing their value recover vs seven years ago according to Nationwide, while Land Registry slightly lags the market, hence not showing a full recovery yet.
Kate Faulkner’s Market Commentary:
“2015 is proving to be an interesting year and having just sold one of my properties, we had seven viewings in the first few days and an offer above the asking price, which was unexpected, but the buyer has already lost out to several similar ones in the area. In other areas, getting viewings isn’t always easy. It looks like we might be heading towards a much more ‘calm’ property market where buyers and sellers are both taking their time to make the right decision – rather than being led to ‘panic buy’ or ‘sell’ by scary media stories.”
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