UK House Price Index: December 2016

This is a high-level summary of the UK House Price Index (HPI), which replaces the previous house price indices separately published by the Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics. For full details, including commentary, historical data tables and analytical tools please see the main publication of the new House Price Index, published today on the GOV.UK website.

The UK HPI is a joint production by Land Registry, Land and Property Services Northern Ireland, Office for National Statistics and Registers of Scotland.

Average house prices in the UK have increased by 7.2% in the year to December 2016 (up from 6.1% in the year to November 2016), continuing the strong growth seen since the end of 2013. However, annual growth has been weaker in the second half of 2016 compared with the first half of the year.

The average UK house price was £220,000 in December 2016. This is £15,000 higher than in December 2015 and £3,000 higher than last month.

The main contribution to the increase in UK house prices came from England, where house prices increased by 7.7% over the year to December 2016, with the average price in England now £236,000. Wales saw house prices increase by 4.7% over the last 12 months to stand at £148,000. In Scotland, the average price increased by 3.5% over the year to stand at £142,000. The average price in Northern Ireland currently stands at £125,000, an increase of 5.7% over the last 12 months.

On a regional basis, London continues to be the region with the highest average house price at £484,000, followed by the South East and the East of England, which stand at £316,000 and £282,000 respectively. The lowest average price continues to be in the North East at £129,000.

The East of England is the region which showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 11.3% in the year to December 2016. Growth in the South East was second highest at 8.5%, followed by London at 7.5%. The lowest annual growth was in the North East, where prices increased by 4.1% over the year.

The local authority showing the largest annual growth in the year to December 2016 was the Shetland Islands, where prices increased by 26.1% to stand at £179,000. Low numbers of sales transactions in some local authorities, such as the Shetland Islands, can lead to volatility in the series. The lowest annual growth was recorded in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 9.8% to stand at £168,000.

In December 2016, the most expensive borough to live in was Kensington and Chelsea, where the cost of an average house was £1.3 million. In contrast, the cheapest area to purchase a property was Burnley, where an average house cost £74,000.

The UK House Price Index (HPI) Quality and Methodology Information document contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data

• the quality of the output: including the accuracy of the data and how it compares with related data

• uses and users

• how the output was created

The UK House Price Index (HPI) has been published initially as an experimental official statistic to allow for users to acclimatise to the format of the new HPI, to evaluate user reaction to the new data, to continue evolution of data publication to meet user requirements and to further develop the data sources used in the production. While the methodology for the new UK HPI has been finalised, further work is taking place to secure additional property attributes data (such as from Scottish Assessors) that will supplement and provide additional assurance to the future production process.

It is expected that we will seek to remove the experimental status once the above points have been implemented and then progress with the assessment of the new UK HPI as a National Statistic.

Please note that the Northern Ireland Residential Property Price Index, used as a component source in the production of the new UK HPI, remains an official statistic (that is, it is not classified as experimental).

In September 2016, users of the index were invited to complete a questionnaire to aid evaluation of different aspects of the main report. The responses have been used to plan future improvements.

Further information on how the new UK HPI compares with the previous Office for National Statistics and Land Registry House Price Indices can be found in the article Explaining the impact of the new UK HPI.