UK House Price Index: May 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 HPI, 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.

The UK 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, evolve the publication of data further to meet user requirements and to further develop the data sources used in the production. Whilst 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 production process going forward.

It is expected that we will seek to take the necessary steps to remove the experimental status at the end of 2016, 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 this is not classified as experimental).

UK average house prices have increased by 8.1% in the year to May 2016 (unchanged from the year to April 2016), continuing the strong growth seen since the end of 2013.

The average UK house price was £211,000 in May 2016. This is £16,000 higher than in May 2015, and £2,400 higher than last month.

The main contribution to the increase in UK house prices came from England, where house prices increased by 8.9% over the year to May 2016, with the average price in England now £227,000. Wales saw house prices increase by 3.6% over the latest 12 months to stand at £143,000. In Scotland, the average price increased by 4.0% over the year to stand at £141,000. The average price in Northern Ireland is currently £118,000.

On a regional basis, London continues to be the region with the highest average house price at £472,000, followed by the South East and the East of England, which stand at £306,000 and £265,000 respectively. The lowest average price continues to be in the North East at £124,000.

London was also the region which showed the highest annual growth, with prices increasing by 13.6% in the year to May 2016. The South East (12.9%) and the East of England (12.8%) also had high annual growth. The lowest annual growth was in the North East, where prices increased by 3.2% over the year.

The local authority showing the largest annual growth in the year to May 2016 was Slough, where prices increased by 23.3% to stand at £287,000. The lowest annual growth was recorded in the City of London, where prices fell by 9.2% to stand at £692,000.

In May 2016, the most expensive borough to live in was Kensington and Chelsea, where the cost of an average house was £1.27 million. In contrast, the cheapest area to purchase a property was Burnley, where an average house cost £69,000.

Further information on how the new UK HPI compares to the previous ONS and Land Registry House Price Indices can be found in the article ‘Explaining the impact of the new UK house price index'.