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Land Registry comment on UK prices

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Source: Catherine Deshayes

According to the Land Registry, house prices rose by 0.2% in April compared with March, putting the average cost of a home at £165,596 in England and Wales...

It must be noted that the Land Registry compiles its data from completed transactions and therefore lags behind other monitors of the housing market but is generally regarded as the most authoritative.

According to the Registry, house prices are 8.5% higher than a year ago - the fastest rate of growth since September 2007.

London saw the biggest annual and monthly rise in prices during the month, with the annual rate of inflation at 14.8%, while the capital saw gains of 1.6% in April alone.

"While London's annual change mirrored that of England and Wales for quite some time, the capital's growth rate is now overtaking steadily," said the Land Registry.

In related news today, financial information service Moneyfacts said the number of mortgage products available has risen again.

According to Moneyfacts, there were 2,191 deals available at the start of June, requiring deposits of between 0% and 40% - this represents a 14% increase in the number of mortgages in the last month.

"Lenders continue to ease their criteria and average rates still fall as competition for a limited amount of mortgage business gathers pace," said Darren Cook at Moneyfacts.

In other news, yesterday property website Rightmove reported a rise in the number of properties coming onto the market.

The rise was attributed to the scrapping of Home Information Packs (Hips).

The coalition Government scrapped Hips last month, describing them as "pointless red-tape" which have been "strangling the housing market".

According to Rightmove, listings on its website have jumped by 35% in the seven days after the Government announced it was scrapping the packs.

Source: www.homemove.co.uk