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• House Price Index April 2006

House Price Index April 2006

The mix-adjusted average house price in the UK in April 2006 stood at £188,290, up from £186,519 in March 2006 (not seasonally adjusted).

Download this release as a PDF: House Price Index April 2006

• The mix-adjusted average house price in the UK in April 2006 stood at £188,290, up from £186,519 in March 2006 (not seasonally adjusted).
• UK annual house price inflation in April 2006 was 5.1 per cent, up from 3.3 per cent in March 2006. Annual house price inflation in London was 7.1 per cent in April 2006, up from 4.0 per cent in March 2006.
• The UK annual house price inflation rate for the 3 months to April 2006 was 3.9 per cent, and 4.2 per cent in London.

Figure 1: UK annual house price inflation (all dwellings)

House Price Inflation: Regional

The UK house price inflation rate rose from 3.3 per cent in March 2006 to 5.1 per cent in April 2006. Prices rose by 0.9 per cent between March and April, compared to a fall of 0.8 per cent seen over the same period last year. 
 
The rise in UK prices between March and April can be attributed to rises in average prices for all property types, in particular for terraced houses (2.0 per cent, and semi-detached houses (1.1 per cent).

In the home countries, Scotland saw a fall in inflation in April, while inflation rose in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in April. The inflation rate in England rose from 2.5 per cent in March to 4.7 per cent in April, the inflation rate in Wales rose from 5.3 per cent to 6.6 per cent, in Northern Ireland the rate rose from 14.1 per cent to 15.8 per cent. In Scotland the rate fell from 10.8 per cent to 7.6 per cent.

Figure 2: House price inflation by country 

House price inflation rose in all of the   English regions. The highest inflation rate remains in Yorkshire and the Humber (8.9 per cent), followed by North East (7.3 per cent), London (7.1 per cent) and North West (6.5 per cent). Inflation rates were lower in other parts of England; in South West (3.7 per cent), East (3.2 per cent), East Midlands and South East (both 2.8 per cent) and West Midlands (2.0 per cent).

Figure 3: Regional house price indices

                12-month percentage change for last month  

HOUSE PRICES: REGIONAL

Mix-adjusted average house prices in April were £196,943 in England, £151,226 in Wales, £132,201 in Scotland and £142,475 in Northern Ireland.

The English region with the highest average house price in April remains London at £278,257. The lowest average price was in the North East at £136,253.

Only the East, London, South East and the South West had average prices above the UK average.

Figure 4: Mix-adjusted average house prices

                 Not seasonally adjusted

HOUSE PRICE INFLATION: TYPE OF BUYER

The UK house price inflation rate for first time buyers rose from 4.6 per cent in March to 4.9 per cent in April. This was due to a rise of 0.7 per cent in prices between March and April in the properties bought by first time buyers compared with a smaller rise of 0.4 per cent over the same period last year.

The inflation rate for former owner occupiers rose from 2.8 per cent in March to 5.2 per cent in April. This was due to a rise of 1.0 per cent in prices between March and April in the properties bought by former owner occupiers, compared with a fall of 1.3 per cent over the same period last year.

The average price paid by first time buyers across the whole of the UK was £146,248 in April, while the average price paid by former owner occupiers was £206,222.

Figure 5: UK annual house price inflation by type of buyer

                12-month percentage change

TABLES

Tables are from November 2003 to April 2006.

A1: Mix-adjusted house price index and annual inflation by region.
A2: Mix-adjusted average house prices by region.
A3: Mix-adjusted house price index and annual inflation by type of buyer, UK.
A4: Mix-adjusted average house prices by type of buyer, UK.

Additional tables and earlier monthly data can be accessed in the 'Live tables' section (housing market) at /housingstatistics

Notes to editors

1. The mix-adjusted house price series are produced by Communities and Local Government and are being published on an experimental basis. Development of the methodology underpinning the indices has been undertaken in conjunction with the Office for National Statistics. The index will undergo a quality audit during 2006 with a view to gaining accreditation as a 'National Statistic'.

2. Since September 2005 the new mix-adjusted house price index is based on an enlarged sample of completions data (about 45,000 per month) from about 50 mortgage lenders who supply data through the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS) of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML)/BankSearch.  Prior to this date the index was based on the Survey of Mortgage Lenders (SML) (about 25,000 completions per month). The number of cases received will also be affected by the total number of mortgages that have been completed.

3. In January of each year the index weights are revised to reflect the pattern of property transactions during the previous 3 years. The mix-adjusted average prices for the rest of the year are then determined using these new weights. Consequently whilst house prices within the year are comparable - they are all based on the same weights - house prices between years cannot be compared because last year's weights and this year's weights are different. The index itself is constructed on a chain-linked basis, which enables year-on-year comparisons to be made. This means that the year-on-year change in the index for April, say, is effectively the change in the average price from April 2005 to January 2006 (using last year's weights) combined with the change in the average price from January 2006 to April 2006 using this year's weights. Therefore, the year-on-year change in the index is not the same as the year-on-year change in the mix-adjusted average price.

4. Communities and Local Government index is currently showing similar year-on-year inflation to other indices available from commercial sources. The slight difference will be affected by differences in weighting. Communities and Local Government uses expenditure weights, whereas other indices use transaction weights. Consequently, Communities and Local Government index is influenced by house price inflation rates in the higher priced areas (which are currently in the South) where house prices - and therefore total expenditure on house buying - is highest. Similarly, regional inflation determined by Communities and Local Government is more influenced by the market for the higher priced properties (i.e. the demand for detached houses).

5. Note that Communities and Local Government house price index figures released in this issue are based on completions during the month of April. Other recent indicators have been based on asking prices in May or prices based on mortgages approved during May. Therefore Communities and Local Government figures are not directly comparable with these other indicators.

6. A month on month comparison of Communities and Local Government index and price is not advised, as the series are not seasonally adjusted and comparisons over periods of less than a year will be affected by seasonal fluctuations. The series will not be seasonally adjusted until a sufficiently long series exists.

7. Further details on the methodology of the index can be found in the Publications section of Housing Statistics website, at /housingstatistics. 

8. Further quarterly and annual house price data can be found on Communities and Local Government web site in Live tables - Housing Market section, tables 507 and 508 and tables 590 to 594.

9. The next three release dates are: 

• Monday 10 July 2006
  
• Monday 14 August 2006
  
• Monday 11 September 2006

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