Every other month we look in detail at what the property price reports are saying to see if we can spot what the latest trends are and look beyond the ‘headline’s to help buyers, sellers and investors really understand what’s happening to property prices and more importantly why.
Download my full report for June 2015
What's happening right now?
The Nationwide reported average property price of £195,166 for May 2015, which is up around 4.6% year on year, when compared to the same time last year.
The Land Registry average price for April 2015 of £179,817, a year on year increase of 5.1%.
The Acadata average property prices in May 2015 are £277,178, which is up 4.2% year on year.
Download my full report for June 2015
What's happened over the last couple of years?
‘Average prices’ for mortgaged properties were £162,245 (Jan 13) vs £195,166 for Nationwide May 15.
Land Registry’s average sold prices (including some cash sales) started at £160,839 in January 2013 and are now at £179,817 in April, having shown only small changes over the last six months (Apr 15).
Acadata’s average property prices for all properties were £227,478 in Jan 2013 vs £277,178 (May 15).
Download my full report for June 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 eight years ago according to Nationwide, while Land Registry slightly lags the market, hence not showing a full recovery yet.
6% above the height of 2007/08 for Nationwide
-2% below the height of 2007/08 for Land Registry
20% above the height of 2007/08 for Acadata
Kate Faulkner’s Market Commentary:
“The two suggestions are that price growth is slowing on the one hand and slightly quickening on the other. This appears mostly due to the time the market is measured, and all the data really suggests a market slow down to around the 5% per year seen over the last 15 years. The interesting question for the rest of the year is, will property prices continue to slow as most predict, even if supply is tight and demand is higher than supply? If so, that suggests that the MMR and the limit of lending at 4.5x income is starting to restrain house prices. It may also be that buyers are just ‘fed up’ with competing and rather than driving house prices upward in a ‘panic’ to get onto the market, they are now deciding to pull out, softening price growth.”
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