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Official: House prices still rising

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
15/08/2017

UK property prices are up, according to Government figures, but the slowdown in London continues

The average price of a property in the UK was £223,257 in June, according to the government’s UK House Price Index.

This official measure lags behind other house price indices but it is based on actual sales, rather than selling prices or mortgage approvals, so is considered highly accurate.

It noted that the annual price change for a property in the UK was 4.9% in June, while prices were 0.8% higher than they had been in May.

The annual growth of property prices has slowed since mid-2016, but has remained broadly around 5% during 2017.

The greatest house price growth was in the East of England (7.2%) while the smallest house price growth was in the North East (2.5%) in the 12 months to June 2017.

Capital slowdown

In London prices were down -0.7% in June, while annual price inflation was a modest 2.9%.

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of Garrington Property Finders, said: “After the previous month’s data showed a decline in London’s house prices, it’s concerning but not surprising to see a further – and more pronounced – fall in the capital’s prices in June.

“For years, London’s property market seemed to know no bounds, but for two consecutive months the capital has seen a deceleration in prices, forcing sellers to adjust their pricing in keeping with a new reality.

“There is a degree of inevitability about prices cooling, as house price inflation in the capital raced ahead of wage inflation for several years, but ultimately this situation was always going to be unsustainable.”

Sales steady

Sales were up slightly, according to the most recent UK Property Transaction statistics, which noted a 1% increase in sales in June when compared to a year earlier. However, transactions did fall by 3.3% between May and June this year.