January 31, 2012 | Author

Author Alec Hanson

England & Wales house prices down

The Land Registry House Price Index, seen the one of the most accurate covering all purchases whether via credit or cash, has again shown that in December London continues to buck the trend.

The overall index was totally flat with a 0% change over the month, keeping house prices at an average of £160,384. This does however represent a fall of -1.3% over the whole year.

However the data for London shows a positive monthly change of 0.8%, which means that the annual change now stands at 2.8% and the average price is £345,298.

The number of property transactions has decreased over the last year. In July to October 2010, there was an average of 61,274 sales per month. In the same months this year, the figure was 60,764 sales per month.

Regional & Type of House differences

Not surprisingly the movement in house prices vary around the country and through the variety of housing stock.

UK wide the -1.3% fall was spread with semi-detached house experiencing the smallest fall in value at -0.8%, whereas detached and terraced houses both saw a fall of -1.7%.

Regionally, excluding London, the East and South East where the best performing with only a small -0.2% fall and average price of £177,899 and £206,522 respectively.

The North East was be far the worst affected with a whopping -7.1% fall and an average house price of £99,464.

The North West was second to bottom with a -3.4% fall and average price of £113,204 – however in December it experienced the largest increase of 1.5%, beating even London.