The future direction of house prices was not so clear today, after the Land Registry released some surprising figures on Friday.
They reported that house prices in England and Wales were down only 0.6% on the month in July, and down only 2% on the year to date. These figures are far lower than the double-digit price falls reported by the UK’s two largest mortgage lenders – Nationwide and Halifax.
The Land Registry calculates its figures on actual transactions. The two building societies calculate their figures on mortgage approvals. Transactions occur, and are then reported, several months after the mortgage is actually approved and it could be this ‘time-lag’ that is affecting the data – meaning that the lower price falls actually reflect the market some 3 months ago, rather than now. But some observers feel that this is unlikely as there is just too big a discrepancy between these figures and the figures of the building societies.
Another factor that could affect the Land Registry figures is that it only records houses that have already been sold once since the year 2000. This equates to only 2% of the housing stock. This can cause some small biases to be exaggerate – statistically.
The feeling remains, that these accurate figures (they do after all show the actual transaction values) maybe a small glimmer of hope in the otherwise overly depressing outlook for the current UK housing market.
Let us do all the work for you
