Land Registry: house prices down 2.6%

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by Gill Montia

September figures from the Land Registry show house prices in England and Wales falling by 0.3% between August and September.

At 2.6%, the annual rate of decline has remained much the same for the past five months, with the value of the typical home down to £162,109.

The only region to record rising property prices in September was London, where the typical home was worth 2.7% more than a year earlier.

The North East saw the greatest annual fall in prices, at 8.2%, properties having lost 3.9% of their value during the month.

Wales followed on with an annual fall of 5.8%.

The Registry’s most up-to-date figures show that during July, the number of completed house sales in England and Wales fell by 11% compared with a year earlier, to 59,919.

In its recent survey of UK housing market sentiment, Knight Frank / Markit reported that a majority of homeowners in eight out of the 11 regions of the UK expect prices to fall, rather than rise, in the next twelve months.

Those in the North East are braced for the biggest declines, followed by homeowners in the South West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Only three regions expect house prices to rise in the coming year: London, the East of England and the South East.