Press release

UK House Price Index (HPI) for February 2017

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

The February data shows an annual price increase of 5.8% which takes the average property value in the UK to £217,502. Monthly house prices have risen by 0.6% since January 2017. The monthly index figure for the UK was 114.1.

In England, the February data shows an annual price increase of 6.3% which takes the average property value to £234,466. Monthly house prices have risen by 0.8% since January 2017.

Wales shows an annual price increase of 1.8% which takes the average property value to £145,293. Monthly house prices have fallen by 0.9% since January 2017.

London shows an annual price increase of 3.7% which takes the average property value to £474,704. Monthly house prices have fallen by 0.9% since January 2017.

The regional data indicates that:

  • East of England experienced the greatest increase in its average property price over the last 12 months with a movement of 10.3%
  • Yorkshire and the Humber experienced the greatest monthly price growth with an increase of 2.5%
  • North East saw the lowest annual price growth with an increase of 2.2%
  • South East saw the most significant monthly price fall with a movement of -1.0%

The UK Property Transaction statistics showed that in February 2017 the total number of seasonally adjusted property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above decreased by 1.9% compared with February 2016. See the economic statement.

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

  • the number of completed house sales in England fell by 19% to 65,064 compared with 80,367 in December 2015
  • the number of completed house sales in Wales fell by 6.9% to 3,845 compared with 4,129 in December 2015
  • the number of completed house sales in London fell by 31.3% to 6,665 compared with 9,700 in December 2015
  • there were 584 repossession sales in England in December 2016
  • there were 66 repossession sales in Wales in December 2016
  • the lowest number of repossession sales in England and Wales in December 2016 was in the East of England

Access the full February UK HPI data

Price change by region for England

Region Monthly change % since January 2017 Annual change % since February 2016 Average price February 2017
East Midlands 2.0 7.5 £176,784
East of England 2.1 10.3 £281,665
London -0.9 3.7 £474,704
North East -0.1 2.2 £123,749
North West 1.8 6.7 £152,618
South East -1.0 5.4 £311,539
South West 0.4 6.2 £241,582
West Midlands 1.1 7.0 £180,516
Yorkshire and The Humber 2.5 5.2 £152,591

Average price by property type for England

Average price by property type (England) February 2017 February 2016 Difference %
Detached £351,557 £331,270 6.1
Semi-detached £216,151 £204,072 5.9
Terraced £189,088 £178,610 5.9
Flat/maisonette £223,540 £207,771 7.6
All £234,466 £220,627 6.3

Price change for Wales

Monthly change % since January 2017 Annual change % since February 2016 Average price February 2017
Wales -0.9 1.8 £145,293

Average price by property type for Wales

Average price by property type (Wales) February 2017 February 2016 Difference %
Detached £217,801 £214,386 1.6
Semi-detached £139,797 £137,111 2.0
Terraced £112,022 £110,868 1.0
Flat/maisonette £108,875 £103,247 5.5
All £145,293 £142,712 1.8

Average price by property type for London

Average price by property type (London) February 2017 February 2016 Difference %
Detached £894,258 £863,896 3.5
Semi-detached £568,868 £550,400 3.4
Terraced £482,353 £472,651 2.1
Flat/maisonette £422,671 £403,745 4.7
All £474,704 £457,759 3.7

Sales volumes for England

Month Sales 2016 England Sales 2015 England Difference %
November 62,482 79,243 -21.2
December 65,064 80,367 -19.0

Sales volumes for Wales

Month Sales 2016 Wales Sales 2015 Wales Difference %
November 3,582 4,082 -12.2
December 3,845 4,129 -6.9

Sales volumes for London

Month Sales 2016 London Sales 2015 London Difference %
November 6,394 9,806 -34.8
December 6,665 9,700 -31.3

Funding, buyer and building status for England

Transaction type Monthly price change % since January 2017 Annual price change % since February 2016 Average price February 2017
Cash 1.1 6.4 £220,988
Mortgage 0.7 6.2 £241,261
First time buyer 1.2 6.5 £197,581
Former owner occupier 0.5 6.0 £265,087
New build 6.8 21.8 £315,826
Existing resold property 0.4 5.3 £229,457

Funding, buyer and building status for Wales

Transaction type Monthly price change % since January 2017 Annual price change % since February 2016 Average price February 2017
Cash -0.9 1.6 £141,497
Mortgage -0.9 1.9 £147,549
First time buyer -0.9 1.8 £125,571
Former owner occupier -1.0 1.9 £168,264
New build 5.9 17.9 £209,707
Existing resold property -1.2 1.0 £141,906

Funding, buyer and building status for London

Transaction type Monthly price change % since January 2017 Annual price change % since February 2016 Average price February 2017
Cash 0.3 5.3 £506,688
Mortgage -1.2 3.2 £465,123
First time buyer -0.9 3.8 £415,724
Former owner occupier -0.9 3.6 £534,849
New build 3.7 17.2 £525,118
Existing resold property -1.2 2.7 £470,791

Repossession

Repossession sales December 2016
East Midlands 46
East of England 16
London 46
North East 70
North West 139
South East 59
South West 41
Yorkshire and The Humber 104
West Midlands 63
England 584
Wales 66

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 March 2017 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on 16 May 2017. A calendar of release dates is available.

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

  3. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics andLand & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM 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 since 2014 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 HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

  7. The HM 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 HM 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, HM 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, HM Land Registry underpins the economy by safeguarding ownership of many billions of pounds worth of property.

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

  15. Follow us on Twitter @HMLandRegistry, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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Updates to this page

Published 11 April 2017