UK House Price Index: May 2018

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 House Price Index, published today (9:30,18 July 2018) by HM Land Registry on the GOV.UK website.

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

The UK HPI, introduced in June 2016, 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.

The UK HPI is an official statistic. We continue to progress with the assessment of the UK House Price Index as a National Statistic.

Average house prices in the UK have increased by 3.0% in the year to May 2018 (down from 3.5% in April 2018). This is its lowest annual rate since August 2013 when it was also 3.0%. The annual growth rate has slowed since mid-2016 and has remained under 5%, with the exception of October 2017, throughout 2017 and into 2018.

This drop in UK house price growth is driven mainly by a slowdown in the south and east of England. The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices decreased by 0.4% over the year. This is the fourth consecutive month that London house prices have fallen over the year.

The average UK house price was £226,000 in May 2018. This is £6,000 higher than in May 2017 and unchanged from last month. On a seasonally adjusted basis (series available in data downloads), average house prices in the UK decreased by 0.2% between April 2018 and May 2018, compared with an increase of 0.4% in average prices during the same period a year earlier (April 2017 and May 2017).

Across the UK, all houses showed an increase in average price in May 2018 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached houses showed the biggest increase, rising by 4.6% in the year to May 2018 to £344,000. The average price of flats and maisonettes were unchanged in the year to April 2018 (0.0%) at £203,000, the lowest annual growth of all property types. Weaker growth in UK flats and maisonettes was driven by negative annual growth in London for this property type. London accounts for around 25% of all UK flats and maisonette transactions.

The main contribution to the increase in UK house prices came from England, where house prices increased by 2.9% over the year to May 2018, with the average price in England now £244,000. Wales saw house prices increase by 1.0% over the last 12 months to stand at £149,000. In Scotland, the average price increased by 4.9% over the year to stand at £149,000. The average price in Northern Ireland currently stands at £130,000, an increase of 4.2% over the year to Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018.

On a regional basis, London continued to be the region with the highest average house price at £479,000, followed by the South East and the East of England, which stood at £322,000 and £289,000 respectively. The lowest average price continued to be in the North East at £129,000.

The East Midlands showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 6.3% in the year to May 2018. This was followed by the West Midlands (5.0%).

The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices decreased by 0.4% over the year. London has shown a general slowdown in its annual growth rate since mid-2016. This is the fourth consecutive month that London house prices have fallen over the year. The second-lowest annual growth was in the North East, where prices increased by 1.3% in the year to May 2018.

Data at the local authority level and other breakdowns can be found in the main publication of the UK House Price Index published by HM Land Registry on GOV.UK.

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

Further information on how the UK HPI compares with the previous Office for National Statistics and HM Land Registry House Price Indices can be found in the article Explaining the impact of the new UK House Price Index. The UK House Price Index (HPI) Quality and methodology report contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data

• uses and users of the data

• how the output was created

• the quality of the output including the accuracy of the data