Office for National Statistics
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Introducing the new UK House Price Index

ONS has today published early historic England & Wales estimates for the new single official UK House Price Index, which will be first published in its entirety in June 2016.

The new improved Index, developed jointly with other official producers of house price statistics following a review by the National Statistician, uses data from, amongst others, the Land Registry and Council of Mortgage Lenders. By using these comprehensive datasets together, as well as by employing the best internationally agreed methods, the new UK HPI will give the best and most detailed picture of the UK housing market.

For the most recent period published today (December 2011), the new UK HPI shows an average price level of £185,000 for England & Wales. This is lower than the price recorded by the current ONS HPI for England (£222,000) for the same period but still above the equivalent price levels recorded by the Land Registry for England & Wales (£157,000), the Halifax for the UK (£157,000) and Nationwide for the UK (£163,000).

The main reason for the decrease in price levels from the ONS HPI to the new UK HPI is the use of the geometric mean, which reduces the impact of very high value properties on the headline data.

Over the period 2003-2011, which is the longest comparable period available, the average annual growth is 5.2% for the ONS HPI for England, 4.6% for the Land Registry HPI for England & Wales, 4.7% for the Halifax for the UK, 5.3% for Nationwide for the UK and 6.1% for the new UK HPI for England & Wales. The inclusion of cash sales and improved weights are both contributing to the increased growth seen in the new UK HPI.

Commenting, ONS statistician Chris Jenkins said:

“By combing different data sets and using the best internationally agreed methods, the new UK HPI will give the best possible picture of the changing UK property market.

“For the first time, consistent high quality data will be available for both national and local areas, helping policy makers to make better decisions.”

Background Notes

  1. The full ‘Introducing the new UK House Price Index’ article is available here:http://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/introducingthesingleofficialhousepriceindex

  2. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available from the media office.

Channel website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/

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