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House prices rise 2.5 per cent in August – ONS

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  • 21/10/2020
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House prices rise 2.5 per cent in August – ONS
The average price of a house in the UK rose 2.5 per cent annually to £239,196 in August, Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed

 

According to the House Price Index, this was up 2.1 per cent on July’s annual increase. 

On a monthly basis, this was an uptick of 0.7 per cent, and an improvement on the 0.3 per cent monthly increase seen in August last year. 

As transactions typically take six to eight weeks to complete, these figures do not show the impact of the stamp duty holiday which was announced in July and instead reflect the post-lockdown boom. 

David Westgate, group chief executive at Andrews Property Group, said: “It’s no surprise average annual house prices in August were up on July, as they will have been driven north by the post-lockdown surge in demand. 

“September is likely to see an even sharper upswing in average annual completion values as by that point we will start to see the impact of the stamp duty holiday announced in July.” 

Nicky Stevenson, managing director at national estate agent group Fine & Country, added: “Here is official confirmation that the market did indeed get up to a canter over the summer months. The annual rate of growth soared as buyers frustrated by lockdown and lack of space crammed into the market in search of larger properties.  

“The question is how long this surge can last, with speculation already swirling that the market is set for a fall. Such predictions are probably premature.” 

 

Price by country 

Houses in England were the most expensive on averagereporting a 2.8 per cent increase to £256,000, followed by Wales where prices rose 2.7 per cent to £173,000. 

Despite seeing the largest yearly increase of three per cent, house prices in Ireland were the cheapest at an average of £141,000. 

Scotland homes remained flat with a growth of 0.6 per cent to £155,191. 

ONS said house price growth had generally slowed down since 2016 due to declines in the south and east of England but noted activity seemed to pick up again this year once the property market reopened in May. 

Properties outside of London seemed to boost the market as in August, the East Midlands saw the strongest growth with 3.6 per cent annual surge in price to £202,345. 

London and the North West both saw rises of 3.5 per cent compared to last year while the North East saw the slowest growth of 0.2 per cent.

 

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