UK house prices increased by 9.9% in the year to April 2014, up from 8% in the year to April, the ONS has claimed.
It says annual house price inflation in England was 10.4% – greater than Wales (3.3%), Scotland (4.8%) and Northern Ireland (2.6%).
The greatest rise was in London at 18.7% followed by the south-east at 8.9%.
Taking London and the south-east out of the equation, UK house prices increased by 6.3%.
The ONS says that the average London house price in April was £485,000 and in the south-east £320,000.
The figures drove the average UK house price to £260,000. However, removing London and the south-east, the average UK house price was £199,000.
The ONS is one of two official house price surveys and we are constantly told that they and the Land Registry work to two different methods, as if that made both all right. But the point is: they can’t both be right.
The Land Registry put the average house price across Wales and England at £172,069 for May – so there is a gap of nearly £90,000 between what it says and what the ONS says about the average house price.
The BBC was among media organisations reporting the ONS statistics without once referring to the very different Land Registry figures, let alone querying the huge gap.
ONS figures are close to Rightmove and the LSL Academetrics survey but a long way apart not only from Land Registry, but Nationwide and Halifax figures.
So who does the consumer trust? Which set of figures are journalists going to quote? Will the BBC ever mind the gap? And where is the agent going to get the meaningful comparables?
When the Land Registry monthly data is so out of sync with the ONS, surely it is time to shoot one of them.
Your guess is as good as mine. And that’s the problem.
Your thoughts? Welcome as always.
Comments (4)
Prices are really topping out from where I'm looking. We are now seeing much more property being over valued by inexperienced agents and those properties are not selling. The problem is the public see figures like "10% Up" and then they add it to the prices that similar properties (in their area) have sold for. They don't realise that the 10% has already been included in recent sale prices. We are reaching the most frustrating part of a market where, after sharp increases, property is now going to have to level off before we finally have a good trading market.
Spot on! – Educating the public that their property is not worth 10% more then the fully refurbished property that sold last week is the challenge (whilst also keeping a sensible fee). Inexperienced corporates will be over valuing and desperate independents will be fee slashing (why any agent does this is beyond me)>
I don't think anyone seriously believes the ONS figures but for organisations like the BBC they are great for peddling the myth that UK house prices are out of control and therefore interest rates should rise. Then allowing them to do what they and other media organisations love most, deliver bad news.
Travel a bit north of M25 and look at reality- figures quite different.