UK House Price Index: July 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, 19 September 2018) by HM Land Registry on the GOV.UK website.

The Office for Statistics Regulation has designated the UK House Price Index as a National Statistic. 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.

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.

Average house prices in the UK have increased by 3.1% in the year to July 2018 (down slightly from 3.2% in June 2018). This is the lowest UK annual rate since August 2013 when it was 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 slowdown in UK house price growth over the past two years is driven mainly by a slowdown in the south and east of England. The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices decreased by 0.7% over the year, down from an increase of 0.3% in the year to June 2018.

The average UK house price was £231,000 in July 2018. This is £6,000 higher than in July 2017 and £2,000 higher than last month. On a seasonally adjusted basis (series available in data downloads), average house prices in the UK increased by 0.3% between June 2018 and July 2018, compared with an increase of 0.5% in average prices during the same period a year earlier (June 2017 and July 2017).

Across the UK, all houses showed an increase in average price in July 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 July 2018 to £352,000. The average price of flats and maisonettes increased by 0.6% in the year to July 2018, to £208,000, 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 3.0% over the year to July 2018, with the average price in England now £249,000. Wales saw house prices increase by 4.2% over the last 12 months to stand at £157,000. In Scotland, the average price increased by 3.2% over the year to stand at £152,000. The average price in Northern Ireland currently stands at £133,000, an increase of 4.4% over the year to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018.

On a regional basis, London continued to be the region with the highest average house price at £485,000, followed by the South East and the East of England, which stood at £327,000 and £295,000 respectively. The lowest average price continued to be in the North East at £132,000.

The North West showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 5.6% in the year to July 2018. This was followed by the South West and West Midlands regions (both 4.4%).

The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices decreased by 0.7% over the year. London has shown a general slowdown in its annual growth rate since mid-2016. The second-lowest annual growth was in the South East, where prices increased by 1.8% in the year to July 2018, followed by the East of England, where prices increased by 2.4%. This is the first time since May 2009 that London, the South East and the East of England have been the lowest-ranked regions for annual growth.

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