House prices in London apparently dropped with an earth-shattering thud in February compared with January.
The Office for National Statistics reported yesterday that London’s average house price in February was £524,000.
It had previously reported London house prices averaging £551,000 the previous month – meaning that London house prices had gone down £27,000 in the space of just over four weeks.
In fact, London house prices did fall in February, but with a smaller thud of £12,000, from £536,000.
Why such a dramatic discrepancy?
In the explanation at the bottom of the index, the ONS reveals that it has revised its figures for January – and not just for London.
Last month, the ONS reported that January’s average UK house price jumped almost £4,000 to stand at £291,000.
The ONS now says that average property prices in the UK fell by £1,700 in January.
However, even at £524,000 the average London house price in February was still almost 50% higher than at the pre-recession peak.
Despite the monthly fall, on an annual basis UK house prices roared ahead in February, driven by steep annual rises in London, the south-east and the east of England.
In these regions, annual house price inflation was 9.7%, 11.4% and 10.3% respectively.
Excluding London and the south-east, house prices in England rose 5% in the 12 months to February.
In the rest of the UK, house prices rose 2.8% in Wales and 2.4% in Northern Ireland, and dipped 0.8% in Scotland.
According to the ONS, the UK “average mix-adjusted” house price in February was £284,000.
However, the figure disguises big variations, with the average house price in England at £298,000, £173,000 in Wales, £189,000 in Scotland and £157,000 in Northern Ireland.
Nick Leeming, chairman of Jackson-Stops & Staff, said that demand had dropped in London.
He said: “Our central London offices are recording on average 2.4 prospective purchasers to every prospective seller in the last year, compared to 3.6 a year ago.
“The lower demand stems from higher transaction and holding costs, such as the revisions to Stamp Duty, which is adversely affecting both domestic and overseas demand.
“This means that vendors in the capital who need to sell are reducing asking prices in order to do so.”
Comments (3)
“This means that vendors in the capital who need to sell are reducing asking prices in order to do so.”
This is just the start, London prices are way out of line with domestic incomes, only if we see foreign investors returning to the market will house prices in London increase.
I predict a London slump and it will last for a while too, at least until something happens. I don’t think the referendum will impact any changes either way. So it’s back to basics, local buyers for local property.
A tacit admission that I do actually know what I’m talking about and do understand the data.
Its as good as I expected so I’ll take this as a ‘sorry Robert’
I will hazard a guess that the blood, sweat and tears of ‘Team May’ are in no small part influential in this ‘adjustment’.
WELL DONE – and thank you – to one and all!
It does worry me, however, that the day may come – sooner rather than later, it seems – that we actually have some accurate statistics to all chew over.
Where will all the ‘debate’ come from if all are handed out the same song sheet to sing from?
;o)