You are here: Home - News -

Property prices in England and Wales rise 4.2%

by:
  • 28/09/2015
  • 0
Property prices in England and Wales rise 4.2%
House prices continued their upward march with a 4.2% annual rise across England and Wales in August and a 0.5% monthly gain giving the average home a price tag of £185,000, Land Registry data revealed.

The contrast between house price differences in the South East, London and regions in the North remained vast. The average house price in the South East increased by 7.6% annually in August compared to August 2014 pushing up the value to almost £255,000. In London, which saw a 6.6% annual increase, the average home is now priced at £493,000. In the North West, following a 0.2% annual rise, the average house is now worth just under £114,000.

Andrew Bridges, managing director of London estate agents Stirling Ackroyd, said: “Pressure is building in the property market after six months gathering steam.

“Demand from buyers is growing steadily while the supply of properties coming onto the market remains resolutely fixed. As well as a shortage of new homes, this long-term mismatch is being boosted by a growing population of more settled owners, especially in more ‘mature’ areas who are less likely to become sellers. On the ground, prices are rising in clear response to this gap between supply and demand.”

All regions saw an average annual increase in property prices with the East of England in poll position with a rise of 8.4%. Wales, the North East and the North West experienced the slowest annual growth in prices with a 0.9%, 0.4% and 0.2% rise respectively.

Monthly data on house price rises showed some regions experienced a slight fall in the average value of property. The North West, Yorkshire and the Humber and the East Midlands experienced a decline of -1.4%, -0.3% and -0.2%.

The most current data on house sales showed a decline in transactions. March to June sales volumes averaged 65,550 transactions per month compared to 73,985 for the same period last year.

In June, sales of homes priced between £200,001 and £250,000 saw one of the largest reductions as transactions fell by 29% year-on-year from 13,462 to 9,559. Sales transactions for homes priced at more than £1m suffered a 17% drop to 1,031 from 1,237 in June 2014 while homes valued at more than £2m fell by 34%.

Bridges said“This trend is real – or at least was very real back in June.  This was mainly a result of the general election the month before which manifested in completed sales the next month.  For the average buyer a ‘wait and see’ attitude hit the market in May which is some explanation for the lower volume of completions around the average sale price in June.

“Meanwhile, at the very top of the market there was a more rational fear of political intervention as May’s mooted mansion tax loomed, sales of homes worth more than the £2m threshold were hit hard, only for these completions to bounce back in our experience since June.”

There are 0 Comment(s)

You may also be interested in