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 the full report for August 2014
What's going on with prices at the moment?
The Nationwide reported average property price of £188,949 for July 2014, which is up around 10.5% year on year, when compared to the same time last year.
The Land Registry average price for June 2014 of £172,011, a year on year increase of 6.4%.
The Acadata reported average property prices in July 2014 are £270,636, which is up 9.9% year on year.
‘Average property’ prices for mortgaged properties started off at £ £162,245 in January 2013 and have grown consistently to a height of £188,949 for Nationwide (July 2014).
Land Registry’s average sold prices (including some cash sales) started at £161,795 in January 2013 and are now at £172,011 (June 2014) having dropped back slightly from May 2014.
Acadata’s average property prices for all properties started off in January 2013 at £227,478 and have now reached a high of £270,636 (July 2014).
Acadata’s Scottish index suggests average house prices are steadily rising, with house sales levels decreasing slightly.
Although the Welsh property market is slowly showing signs of improvement, with year on year prices increasing by just under 3%, prices remain some way off the height of the market, currently standing at -17% down on 2007/08.
Over recent months, there have been some improvements with property prices in Northern Ireland, with a 6.8% increase year on year, but prices are still -44% lower than the height of the market in 2007/08.
London is still the only region to have exceeded the previous high of 2007/8.
The South East has now reached its previous high.
The East and West Midlands, South West and the East are improving, but are still down against the 2007/8 high by between 3% and 13%.
The North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber property prices remain between 18% and 24% below 2007/8 heights.
“The market is of course ‘statistically’ slowing down because of the narrowing of the gap between year on year prices in the second quarter of the year. The first quarter 2014 versus the 2013 was a rising market against a flat one, now the rising market of 2014 is against a rising market of 2013, so prices don’t ‘appear’ to be rising as fast. It’s also true that it’s the summer time and hot weather has never been great for property viewings and people making offers! All that is actually happening just now is pent up demand is abating and supply of properties has risen helped by increased confidence and also the fear that prices may start to flatten once higher interest rates hit potential buyers. At the moment there is a good incentive to both buy and sell, so the market is becoming more balanced.”
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