| 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. | 
