UK House Price Index: August 2019

This is a high-level summary of the UK House Price Index (HPI). For full details, including commentary, historical data tables and analytical tools, please see the main publication of the HPI, published today (9:30am, 16 October 2019) by HM Land Registry on the GOV.UK website.

The Office for Statistics Regulation designated the UK House Price Index (HPI) as a National Statistic on 18 September 2018. A letter from the Director General for Regulation details the actions that were taken to meet the requirements as set out in the UK HPI assessment report.

House price inflation is the rate at which the prices of residential properties purchased in the UK rise and fall. The UK HPI is a joint production by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land and Property Services Northern Ireland, and the Office for National Statistics.

The UK HPI includes all residential properties purchased for market value in the UK. However, as sales only appear in the UK HPI once the purchases have been registered, there can be a delay before transactions feed into the index. As such, caution is advised when interpreting price changes in the most recent periods as they can be revised. Further information is provided in our revision policy.

Average house prices in the UK increased by 1.3% in the year to August 2019, up from 0.8% in July 2019 (Figure 1) but remain below the increases seen this time last year. Over the past three years, there has been a general slowdown in UK house price growth, driven mainly by a slowdown in the south and east of England.

The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices fell by 1.4% over the year to August 2019, followed by the South East where prices fell by 0.6% over the year.

The average UK house price was £235,000 in August 2019, this is £3,000 higher than August 2018 (Figure 2). On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK increased by 0.8% between July 2019 and August 2019, compared with a rise of 0.3% in average prices during the same period a year earlier, in July 2018 and August 2018. On a seasonally adjusted basis, average house prices in the UK increased by 0.6% between July 2019 and August 2019 (series available in data downloads).

House price growth in Wales increased by 4.5% in the year to August 2019, up from 3.8% in July 2019, with the average house price at £168,000. House prices in Scotland increased by 1.6% in the year to August 2019, up from 1.5% in the year to July 2019, with the average house price in Scotland now £155,000. The average house price in England increased by 1.1% over the year to August 2019, up from 0.5% in the year to July 2019, with the average house price in England now £251,000. Northern Ireland house prices increased by 3.5% over the year to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2019. Northern Ireland remains the cheapest UK country to purchase a property in, with the average house price at £137,000 (Figure 3).

At a regional level, the North East was the English region with the highest annual house price growth, with prices increasing by 3.3% in the year to August 2019 (Figure 4). This was followed by the North West, increasing by 3.1%.

The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices fell by 1.4% over the year to August 2019, down from a fall of 1.2% in July 2019. This was followed by the South East, where prices fell by 0.6% over the year.

Focusing on London in more detail, Figure 5 shows average annual house price growth for Inner and Outer London. While still falling over the year, in recent months there has been a strengthening in the annual rate for Inner London, which is now at its highest rate since December 2018. Both Inner and Outer London seem to follow similar trends in house price growth, with changes in Outer London tending to appear slightly after those in Inner London.

While house prices in London and the South East continue to fall over the year, the areas remain the most expensive places to purchase a property at an average of £473,000 and £326,000 respectively. The North East continued to have the lowest average house price at £135,000 and is the only English region yet to surpass its pre-economic downturn peak (Figure 6).

Data at the local authority level and other breakdowns can be found in the full House Price Index (HPI) release is available to download from HM Land Registry at GOV.UK.

Details of the methodology used to calculate the UK House Price Index (HPI) can be found on the guidance page of the main release published by HM Land Registry on GOV.UK.

The UK HPI quality and methodology guidance contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data
• the uses and users of the data
• how the output was created
• the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data