House Prices
The Land Registry – finest supplier of historical data
For the latest reported analysis of house price movements follow the links below. However, here is a wealth warning. The only indices that can be considered totally authoritative is that which is provided by the Land Registry - this reports on every residential property transaction in England and Wales. Land Registry website
However, the data is reported in the quarter following completion - completion usually ensues (very optimistically) - around 8 - 26 weeks (sometimes longer) after the transaction has been agreed. Thus, the Land Registry is the finest source of historical property data available. It is not an indicator of what is happening in the property market today. Property sale price information is also now available on a number of free websites, including OurProperty, NetHousePrices, and rightmove.
The lenders – Their samples are too small, so they contradict each other more often that not
The lenders whose links are included below, by contrast, draw their information from mortgage applications, and report on these the following month or quarter. By definition their sample is much smaller than that of the Land Registry and therefore accurate only in terms of the information that is available to them - however they are more relevant in terms of what has happened in the market recently. It is fair, therefore, to say that they can indicate a trend in prices, although the actual changes that take place will only be revealed 6-12 months later when the Land Registry makes its reports.
HomeTrack obtains its data directly from estate agencies across the country that are at the sharp end and are, thus, able to report on what’s happening in the market today. Measures are taken of agents’ experience of numbers of people registering to buy property and numbers of properties coming to the market. On top of this agents are asked for their indication of how each sector of the market has performed relative to the previous month. The site is, thus, best of the bunch at detecting trends in the market. Accuracy, however, remains the domain of the Land Registry. This is great, provided the objective is to know precisely what happened in the property market six and more months ago. Want to know what is probably happening right now, take a look at Hometrack
Rightmove offers a similar facility on their website here: Rightmove
