Press release

UK House Price Index (HPI) for August 2016

The UK House Price Index shows house price changes for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

UK HPI heat map

The August data shows an annual price increase of 8.4% which takes the average property value in the UK to £218,964. Monthly house prices have risen by 1.3% since July 2016. The monthly index figure for the UK was 114.8.

In England, the August data shows an annual price increase of 9.2% which takes the average property value to £235,573. Monthly house prices have risen by 1.4% since July 2016.

Wales shows an annual price increase of 2.7% which takes the average property value to £144,514. Monthly house prices have fallen by 0.6% since July 2016.

London shows an annual price increase of 12.1% which takes the average property value to £488,908. Monthly house prices have risen by 1.3% since July 2016.

The regional data indicates that:

  • the East of England experienced the greatest increase in its average property value over the last 12 months with a movement of 13.3%
  • the South West experienced the greatest monthly growth with an increase of 2.3%
  • the North East saw the lowest annual price growth with an increase of 3%
  • the North East saw the only monthly price fall with a movement of -0.2%

Home sales in the UK stayed stable between July and August, but remain below levels seen in 2014, 2015 and before the stamp duty changes in early 2016. See the economic statement.

Sales during June 2016, the most up-to-date Land Registry figures available, show that:

  • the number of completed house sales in England fell by 32.2% to 57,637 compared with 85,020 in June 2015
  • the number of completed house sales in Wales fell by 27.1% to 3,046 compared with 4,181 in June 2015
  • the number of completed house sales in London fell by 46.7% to 5,966 compared with 11,202 in June 2015
  • there were 526 repossession sales in England in June 2016
  • there were 55 repossession sales in Wales in June 2016
  • the lowest number of repossession sales in England and Wales in June 2016 was in the East of England

Access the full August UK HPI

Price change by region for England

England by region Monthly change % since July 2016 Annual change % since August 2015 Average price August 2016
East Midlands 1.6 7.6 £175,610
East of England 1.4 13.3 £276,952
London 1.3 12.1 £488,908
North East -0.2 3.0 £127,385
North West 0.9 6.3 £151,489
South East 1.9 12.2 £317,904
South West 2.3 9.0 £243,226
West Midlands 1.6 6.9 £179,429
Yorkshire and The Humber 0.6 4.9 £152,394

Average price by property type for England

Average price by property type (England) August 2016 August 2015 Difference %
Detached £355,055 £324,044 9.6
Semi-detached £217,743 £199,784 9.0
Terraced £189,939 £175,208 8.4
Flat/maisonette £222,434 £201,842 10.2
All £235,573 £215,756 9.2

Price change for Wales

Wales Monthly change % since July 2016 Annual change % since August 2015 Average price August 2016
Wales -0.6 2.7 £144,514

Average price by property type for Wales

Average price by property type (Wales) August 2016 August 2015 Difference %
Detached £217,843 £211,403 3.0
Semi-detached £138,861 £134,539 3.2
Terraced £112,112 £109,681 2.2
Flat/maisonette £103,738 £101,519 2.2
All £144,514 £140,651 2.7

Average price by property type for London

Average price by property type (London) August 2016 August 2015 Difference %
Detached £911,662 £805,864 13.1
Semi-detached £582,816 £514,997 13.2
Terraced £504,408 £448,942 12.4
Flat/maisonette £432,887 £387,978 11.6
All £488,908 £436,152 12.1

Sales volumes for England

Month Sales 2016 England Sales 2015 England Difference %
May 49,795 74,897 -33.5
June 57,637 85,020 -32.2

Sales volumes for Wales

Month Sales 2016 Wales Sales 2015 Wales Difference %
May 2,596 3,685 -29.6
June 3,046 4,181 -27.1

Sales volumes for London

Month Sales 2016 London Sales 2015 London Difference %
May 5,111 9,466 -46.0
June 5,966 11,202 -46.7

Funding, buyer and building status for England

England Monthly change % since July 2016 Annual change % since August 2015 Average price August 2016
Cash 1.4 8.4 £220,891
Mortgage 1.4 9.5 £242,984
First-time buyer 1.2 9.0 £197,622
Former owner occupier 1.5 9.3 £267,347
New build 13.6 26.4 £320,454
Existing resold property 0.5 8.0 £230,183

Funding, buyer and building status for Wales

Wales Monthly change % since July 2016 Annual change % since August 2015 Average price August 2016
Cash -0.8 1.7 £140,327
Mortgage -0.4 3.3 £147,007
First-time buyer -0.7 2.5 £124,802
Former owner occupier -0.4 3.0 £167,497
New build 11.1 20.6 £208,578
Existing resold property -1.3 1.6 £140,909

Funding, buyer and building status for London

London Monthly change % since July 2016 Annual change % since August 2015 Average price August 2016
Cash 1.5 11.7 £514,969
Mortgage 1.2 12.2 £480,888
First-time buyer 1.4 12.1 £427,685
Former owner occupier 1.1 12.1 £551,459
New build 13.0 28.1 £548,775
Existing resold property 0.3 10.8 £484,103

Repossession

Repossession sales June 2016
East Midlands 48
East of England 7
London 33
North East 78
North West 136
South East 57
South West 29
Yorkshire and The Humber 83
West Midlands 55
England 526
Wales 55

Notes to editors

  1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Tuesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The September 2016 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on 15 November 2016. A calendar of release dates is available.

  2. Data for the UK HPI is provided by Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services Northern Ireland and the Valuation Office Agency.

  3. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

  4. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

  5. Work has been taking place over the past two years to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

  6. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

  7. The Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

  8. Repossession data is based on the number of transactions lodged with Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

  9. For England this is shown as volumes of repossessions recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales there is a headline figure for the number of repossessions recorded in Wales.

  10. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about Repossessions.

  11. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

  12. As a government department established in 1862, executive agency and trading fund responsible to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Land Registry keeps and maintains the Land Register for England and Wales. The Land Register has been open to public inspection since 1990.

  13. With the largest transactional database of its kind detailing more than 24 million titles, Land Registry underpins the economy by safeguarding ownership of many billions of pounds worth of property.

  14. For further information about Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

  15. Follow us on:
    Twitter @LandRegGov our blog and LinkedIn and Facebook

Press Office

Trafalgar House
1 Bedford Park
Croydon
CR0 2AQ

Email HMLRPressOffice@landregistry.gov.uk

Phone (Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm) 0300 006 3365

Mobile (5:30pm to 8:30am weekdays, all weekend and public holidays) 07864 689 344

Updates to this page

Published 18 October 2016