Land registry's residential property price report

Citation

(1999), "Land registry's residential property price report", Property Management, Vol. 17 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.1999.11317aab.022

Land registry's residential property price report

Land registry's residential property price report

Keywords Property market, Statistics

The Land Registry today 2 September published the latest in its series of quarterly residential property price reports, covering the period April-June 1998.

The report compares average prices and volume of sales with those for the same period in 1997, illustrating trends over the past year. It incorporates a breakdown of the average sale prices of old versus new properties, by property type.

The data, which cover the whole of England and Wales, are broken down by property type and county, to include the new unitary authorities introduced on 1 April 1998. The figures also incorporate average property prices and volume of sales within Greater London, broken down by individual London boroughs.

Sales in this context are taken to mean the transfer of ownership for value of freehold or long leasehold properties, whether or not the purchase was supported by a mortgage.

No weighting or adjustment is applied to the information collected to reflect any seasonal or other factors. The price data can be said to be actual, unadjusted averages drawn from the great majority of all residential sales in England and Wales completed during the period.

As highlighted in the report, a further 20 new unitary authorities were created on 1 April 1998. When considering price movements in counties affected by these boundary changes, it is important to bear in mind that direct comparisons will not be meaningful.

This Land Registry report is intended to complement information available from other sources. Any comparison with other data should have regard to the differences in volume, timeliness and coverage of contributing transactions.

The Land Registry is also able to provide "bespoke reports" on request, for which a fee is charged. These show aggregated data for any local authority district in England and Wales; any postcode area (e.g. GL); any postcode district (e.g. GL1); or any postcode sector (e.g. GL1 2).

The report for the quarter April-June 1998 demonstrates a number of developments within the property market for England and Wales:

April-June 1998 v. April-June 1997:

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  Year on year, the average price for all properties in England and Wales increased by 9.06 per cent. However, over the same period the volume of sales decreased by 6.03 per cent.

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  For Greater London, there was an annual increase in average property prices of 12.39 per cent, compared with a decrease in the volume of sales of 6.9 per cent.

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  In Greater London, there were significant price increases in the boroughs of Lambeth, Hounslow, Tower Hamlets and Kingston upon Thames.

April-June 1998 v. January-March 1998 (updated at 31 July):

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  Comparing the April-June quarter with the previous quarter, average prices in England and Wales rose by 3.86 per cent.

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  In Greater London, prices over the same period increased by 5.05 per cent.

There are a number of other points of general interest in the report for the whole of England and Wales during the April-June 1998 period:

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  The average price for detached houses in England and Wales rose year on year by 9.26 per cent, compared with 9.05 per cent for semi-detached properties; 9.83 per cent for terraced; and 11.67 per cent for flats and maisonettes.

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  A total of 73.8 per cent of property sales in England and Wales (75.6 per cent in Greater London) were supported by a mortgage.

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  The table for the volume of sales by price range shows that over the past year the largest volume band has moved from £100,000-£120,000 to £120,000-£150,000.

The Land Registry internet site contains a full copy of this new report and all previous reports, together with other useful information on the work of the Land Registry. It can be accessed on: http://www.open.gov.uk/landreg/home.htm

The Land Registry published on 27 August its Annual Report and Accounts for 1997/1998, available from Stationery Office bookshops at £13.40. For the first time, the Land Registry's Annual Report is also available this year in a bilingual English/Welsh version at the same cover price.