House prices across England and Wales ended last year at an average of £292,077, Your Move and Reeds Rains report this morning.
The sister firms owned by LSL say that the figure represents a rise of 6.6% annually, with the average house price up £17,963 during the year.
While property values dropped an average of 8.7% in central London, dragged down by higher Stamp Duty Land Tax on the most expensive homes, prices elsewhere in London jumped 11%.
The firms also say that last month was the strongest December for house sales since 2006 as buyers competed for fewer homes on the market. There was a total of 85,000 home sales.
Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said that new price records were established for every single month last year.
He said: “If the current speed of house price growth continues into 2016, the value of the average home may soon pass the £300,000 watermark, having reached £250,000 in December 2013.
“Property price rises have certainly left the recession in their wake.”
He added: “Regionally, house prices in the south-east have been increasing at a rate of knots, enjoying the fastest growth of any region.
“The 8.1% year-on-year price rise has been particularly propelled by demand for homes in commuter towns. Luton has seen the largest increase of 18.5% year-on-year, with the average cost of a semi-detached home in the town increasing by approximately £40,000 since 2014.
“The east midlands has also seen a significant surge in house prices, overtaking East Anglia to become the second fastest growing region in England.
“This acceleration has emanated from a boom in Nottingham, which has seen year-on-year house price growth of 10.6%, boosting the region’s overall annual growth rate of 6.7%. Average property prices in the city have risen £14,691 in a year and now stand at £152,978.”
Comments (2)
I have a fully cleaned set of land registry data; all the duplications and oddities removed and the mad methodology of the Land registry ignored {land registry based their estimates on 36% of transactions}
I’m not sure where the LSL average comes from, perphaps they can be asked to explain.
H’mm interesting, Reeds Rains have been running an advertising campaign since the summer. Advising prices had gone up and were still increasing, so buy now before it become unaffordable and at the same time they were telling vendors they would get more with them.
I now see that their stocks are low and average asking prices are over priced and unsold. They seem to spend more time than usual board knocking other agents.
Wasn’t HM land Registry figures recently released showing the north has remained as it was?