UK House Price Index: May 2020
In May 2020, the ONS suspended publication of the UK House Price Index until further notice. The impact of COVID-19 has greatly reduced the amount of housing transactions making it very difficult to produce a measure of UK house prices that would be representative of any true transaction activity within the housing market. The following provides an update to the current situation regarding UK HPI and its future reinstatement.
The Office for National Statistics is working to produce high quality statistics to measure the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our economy and society, this includes the housing market. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the production of the UK HPI in two ways:
Firstly, the number of transactions taking place fell significantly in April and May 2020 for the joint producers of the data: HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland as a result of the restrictions in movement and social distancing policies brought into effect on 23 March 2020.
Secondly, as a result of these restrictions, the joint producers have had to adapt their operational process for recording applications and in some cases have moved from an office-based process to a remote process, carried out through homeworking. Whilst this switch has led to an increase in transactions being processed, compared with the early weeks following the 23 March. There are still insufficient records in the system to produce a UK HPI that provides a measure of house prices, which is representative of current market activity.
The joint producers are working hard to process all the transactions they receive as the housing industry responds to this extraordinary period. We will continue to closely monitor the flow of transaction data and we aim to reinstate the UK HPI at the earliest opportunity, that includes providing estimates for both April and May 2020. We will ensure that users of the UK HPI are kept informed of the plans for reinstatement.
For further information, please contact HPI@ONS.gov.uk
Summary
Monthly house price inflation, calculated using data from HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland.
About the data
Accredited Official Statistics
These are accredited official statistics. They have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and found to comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. This broadly means that the statistics:
- meet user needs
- are presented clearly and accessibly
- are produced using appropriate data and sound methods
- are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest