23 Jun 2016
Author: Stephen Breen
A new UK price index that has been created by the Land Registry will help you find out the average house prices for the area you’re buying or selling in. Until now, finding average house prices for a particular area has been difficult, with no less than six national house price indices offering vastly different figures.
The Land Registry’s UK House Price Index (UK HPI) which was launched last week now brings together accurate data that has been compiled from two sources: indices used by the Land Registry that are based on actual transactions, and lending figures held by the Office for National Statistics.
The average house price in the UK as of April 2016 was £209,054 according to the index, with prices 0.6% up on the previous month, and 8.2% higher than the previous year. However, the UK HPI offers far more detailed data than a national average and is more comprehensive than anything that has been available before. The stats available include, amongst others, average prices for new builds, cash sales and first time buyers, all split by location.
The average price across the UK paid by first time buyers was £177,000 (April 2016) which in Liverpool would buy you a two-bedroom apartment at Strand Plaza.
In Wales, the average property price as at April 2016 was just £139,000, and in Scotland, it was £138,000. For cash buyers, the UK average was £198,000, and for new builds it was £255,000.
To find average prices for your area, visit the UK price index website and click ‘Search the UK House Price Index’ then ‘Customise your search’. Select your type of search (‘Local Authorities’ for example), and type in the area you’re interested in, selecting from the suggested options that appear as you type. You can then refine your search using the ‘Select Dates’ and ‘Change Property Types and Report Options’ tab, narrowing down the dates you’re interested in and the property types (e.g. detached house, semi detached house etc).
For more advanced searches, the SPARQL feature allows you to run your own custom queries. There are example queries on the SPARQL query search page to help you, and you can see which data fields can be used by clicking the ‘Details’ link beside each available download on the downloads page.
Make A Free Enquiry
To make a free enquiry please either call us on Southport 01704 532890, Liverpool 0151 928 6544 or complete a Free Online Enquiry and we will soon be in touch.