According to the latest Land Registry House Price Index for April, the current rate of increase for London house prices is over 6% per annum greater than that of England and Wales as a whole. This is the largest divergence in the last two years, when London lagged behind the rest of the country by approximately 6%. The divide in annual growth between London and England & Wales has averaged 3.6% over the last six months. The average price for Greater London in April 2007 stands at £333,785 whereas the average price for England and Wales is £179,935.
Greater London and Brighton and Hove experienced the highest annual price change, both with an increase of 15.6%. Manchester, Bradford and sixteen other counties and unitary authorities also exhibited annual price increases of over 10%.
House price change in England and Wales remained positive for residential property transactions that completed in April 2007. Although the rate of monthly increase is slightly less than the previous month, the change of 0.6% raises the average house price to £179,935 in this month. The annual change in house prices is 9.1%. The data for this month continues to show one of the highest annual increases in almost two years. A year ago, in April 2006, the annual price change was 4.1%, less than half the 9.1% annual price change in April 2007.
The House Price Index is published by the Land Registry using sales data collected on all residential housing transactions, whether for cash or with a mortgage, shortly after each sale is completed.
