On 13 October 2015 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released their House Price Index for August 2015.
The key figures relating to house price changes in the UK are as follows:
- UK house prices up 5.2% in the year to Aug 15, unchanged from 5.2% in the year to July 15.
- House price inflation in England for the year to Aug 15 was 5.6%, also unchanged from the year to July 15.
- Average sold house prices in the South-East rose by 7.4%, up from the 6.7% to July 15.
- Seasonally adjusted average prices rose 0.7% from July to August.
A total of 23 houses were sold in RG14 (Land Registry data, sales to 20 Aug available at time of writing) for an average of £377,004 – an annual increase of 41%.
Once again, with a low number of reported sales we cannot consider the average to be accurate. If we compare sales for the 2 months of Q3 2015 available so far with Q3 2014, we see an increase in the average sold house price of 26.6%, but with only 83 house sales reported so far compared to 267 in Q3 2014.
On 12 October 15 the Council of Mortgage Lenders released their data on loans made in August. Key points are:
- 27,500 loans totalling £4.2Bn to first time buyers, an increase of 1.9% in number and 5% in value on August 14. Down 10.4% in number and 10.6% in value on July 15.
- 22,200 loans totalling £3.4Bn for BTL, an increase of 37.9% in number and 47.8% in value on August 14. Down 11.9% in number and 10.5% in value on July 14.
The figures for average sold house prices and the number of houses sold show equally strong trends but in opposite directions. The lack of supply would appear to be applying upward pressure to house prices, making things more difficult for investors and first time buyers.
