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House prices in England and Wales up again
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
Property prices across England and Wales rose by 0.4% in September, taking the average property price in the two countries to £284,742. What’s more, this was the 9th successive month of increased property values.
The new LSL property price index also shows that yearly, prices have increased by 4.2% and by an average of £11,500.
Solid foundations
In London, prices rose at their highest level since June 2014, with the South East seeing the strongest year-on-year rise of any region. According to Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, this growth is being driven by continuing demand and solid activity towards the bottom of the property ladder.
‘The most frequently paid property price across England and Wales is just £125,000, mirroring the level at which stamp duty becomes payable and reflecting the impetus that has been injected in the first-time buyer market recently,’ he stated.[1]
‘It is also the lower to mid-range properties priced between £180,000 and £360,000 which are seeing the fastest increases in value, while the shift in stamp duty bands continues to slow growth at the higher end of the market and prices above £600,000 are largely stationary,’ Sexton added.[1]
Capital confidence
Mr Sexton went on to point out that a price surge in London during the last month has stopped its stalled market. Sexton said, ‘as in the rest of the country, it’s the more affordably priced London boroughs which are behind this renaissance, as the strengthening of sterling, rising stamp duty rates and moves again the non-doms take their toll on the high end market.’[1]
Data from the index shows that the ten capital boroughs with the lowest average house prices all set new record highs during August. Barking and Dagenham, at the foot of the price rankings, recorded the quickest year-on-year increase in property values of 15.7%.[1]
House prices in England and Wales up again
‘While London is once again leading the pack in terms of monthly price growth, the South East region has soared two places in the rankings to top the charts with the highest annual increase in property values,’ Sexton continued. ‘Average house prices in the South East have grown 5.8% over the past twelve months.’[1]
‘Combined, these two regions are now having a much greater influence on national measures of price growth. Compared to July, when they were only pushing up the overall annual change by 0.1%, this has grown to 0.7%. As house price growth becomes more southern-centric again, the London commuter belt is spurring some of the fastest rates of change with Luton witnessing the steepest price rise compared to last year, jumping 14.9%,’ he concluded.[1]
Regional divides
The regional spread of home sales shows a distinctive north/south divide with cheaper northern regions seeing the quickest growth in property sales. However, a shortage of properties available on the market in the South is slowing activity.
In the three months to August 2015, the North and North West of England saw the largest year-on-year increase in sales, while East Anglia, London and the South East saw the most substantial falls.
[1] http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/england-wales-property-prices-2015100811069.html
