UK house prices increased marginally to 5.7 per cent in the year to June, up from 5.6 per cent the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices increased by 0.4 per cent between May and June, meaning the average property price for a UK property is £277,000.
Prices paid by first-time buyers were 5.1 per cent higher on average than in June 2014, while for owner-occupiers, prices increased by 6 per cent for the same period.
House price annual inflation was 9 per cent in northern Ireland, 6.1 per cent in England, 0.8 per cent in Wales and -0.6 per cent in Scotland.
Annual house price increases in England were driven by an annual increase in the east of 9.2 per cent and the 7.7 per cent in the south east. Excluding London and the south east, UK house prices increased by 5.2 per cent in the 12 months to June.
Guy Meacock, head of the London office of buying agency Prime Purchase, stated that as there still is not enough housing stock, there continues to be an imbalance between supply and demand.
“Estate agents have had a very difficult start to the year but the market is building momentum and it could be a busier Autumn.
“There has been a catalogue of issues affecting the housing market - the Autumn statement last December with the shock stamp duty overhaul, then the election and the threat of a mansion tax, and we have felt that the market is unlikely to completely wash through and absorb all that has happened until the Autumn at the earliest.”
The ONS briefing also contained an update on its progress with developing a single, official house price index.
In March, a joint response was published to the October 2014 consultation, with work since then being focussed on securing necessary approval for implementation of the new index, taking forward the legal work to secure access to property attributes data.
“In response to feedback from the consultation, the use of Gov.uk has been investigated as a central publication point for the new index. As a result of this investigation, it is proposed that the new UK house price index will be published via the Land Registry pages, providing a single and central access point for users.”
ONS will continue to lead on the development of the new indices, in partnership with the Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland.
Over the next few months the focus of the development work will be to finalise access to the data required for the new index, begin testing the production and planning the implementation.
“Whilst there is still a large amount of work to take forward, it is anticipated the new index will be ready for publication in the first half of 2016,” the update added.
peter.walker@ft.com
