Category: 0 Reviewed

The data shows:

• in England, an annual price increase of 5.3% which takes the average property value to £243,520. House prices have risen by 0.7% since July 2017

• in Wales, an annual price increase of 3.4% which takes the average property value to £150,258. House prices have fallen by 0.1% since July 2017

• in London, an annual price increase of 2.6% which takes the average property value to £484,362. House prices have fallen by 1.0% since July 2017

The regional data for England and Wales indicates that:

• the North West experienced the greatest increase in average property price over the last 12 months, with a movement of 6.5%
• the North West also experienced the greatest monthly price growth with an increase of 2.3%
• London saw the lowest annual price growth with an increase of 2.6%
• London also saw the most significant monthly price fall of 1.0%

The UK Property Transaction statistics showed that the number of seasonally adjusted transactions on UK properties with a value of £40,000 or greater has increased by 6.6% between August 2016 and August 2017. However, between July 2017 and August 2017, the number of seasonally adjusted property transactions decreased by 0.5%.

Looking closer at regional levels of the UK, the largest annual growth was in the North West at 6.5%. This was followed by the South West, East of England and the East Midlands, all of which had a growth rate of 6.4% in the year to August 2017. The lowest annual growth was in London, where prices increased by 2.6% over the year. This is the 9th consecutive month where the growth in London house prices has remained below the UK average. See the economic statement.

Sales during June 2017, the most up-to-date HM Land Registry figures available, show that:

• the number of completed house sales in England fell by 11% to 66,082 compared with 74,259 in June 2016
• the number of completed house sales in Wales rose by 1.4% to 3,867 compared with 3,812 in June 2016
• the number of completed house sales in London fell by 20% to 6,768 compared with 8,464 in June 2016
• there were 618 repossession sales in England in June 2017
• there were 64 repossession sales in Wales in June 2017
• the lowest number of repossession sales in England and Wales in June 2017 was in the East of England

Access the full July UK HPI

Price change by region for England

Region	Monthly change % since July 2017	Annual change % since August 2016	Average price August 2017
East Midlands	0.3	6.4	£183,762
East of England	0.0	6.4	£288,440
London	-1.0	2.6	£484,362
North East	1.4	3.7	£130,731
North West	2.3	6.5	£159,865
South East	1.1	4.8	£324,983
South West	0.6	6.4	£251,984
West Midlands	0.6	5.3	£188,447
Yorkshire and the Humber	1.4	4.8	£158,689

Average price by property type for England

Property type	August 2017	August 2016	Difference %
Detached	£369,588	£345,629	6.9
Semi-detached	£224,894	£213,578	5.3
Terraced	£197,746	£187,756	5.3
Flat/maisonette	£225,943	£218,078	3.6
All	£243,520	£231,173	5.3

Price change for Wales

Wales	Monthly change % since July 2017	Annual change % since August 2016	Average price August 2017
Wales	-0.1	3.4	£150,258

Average price by property type for Wales

Property type	August 2017	August 2016	Difference %
Detached	£228,756	£216,982	5.4
Semi-detached	£144,390	£139,249	3.7
Terraced	£115,786	£113,876	1.7
Flat/maisonette	£106,935	£105,233	1.6
All	£150,258	£145,382	3.4

Average price by property type for London

Property type	August 2017	August 2016	Difference %
Detached	£921,881	£889,102	3.7
Semi-detached	£582,853	£568,554	2.5
Terraced	£505,964	£488,417	3.6
Flat/maisonette	£424,385	£415,598	2.1
All	£484,362	£471,946	2.6

Sales volumes for England

Month	Sales 2017 England	Sales 2016 England	Difference %
May	60,454	60,179	0.5
June	66,082	74,259	-11.0

Sales volumes for Wales

Month	Sales 2017 Wales	Sales 2016 Wales	Difference %
May	3,544	3,125	13.4
June	3,867	3,812	1.4

Sales volumes for London

Month	Sales 2017 London	Sales 2016 London	Difference %
May	6,551	6,617	-1.0
June	6,768	8,464	-20.0

Funding, buyer and building status for England

Transaction type	Monthly price change % since July 2017	Annual price change % since August 2016	Average price August 2017
Cash	0.6	5.2	£228,695
Mortgage	0.8	5.4	£250,987
First-time buyer	0.5	4.8	£204,163
Former owner occupier	0.9	5.8	£276,546
New build	0.7	11.3	£307,725
Existing resold property	0.7	4.9	£239,321

Funding, buyer and building status for Wales

Transaction type	Monthly price change % since July 2017	Annual price change % since August 2016	Average price August 2017
Cash	0.1	3.4	£146,648
Mortgage	-0.1	3.3	£152,403
First-time buyer	-0.4	2.7	£129,456
Former owner occupier	0.3	4.0	£174,605
New build	1.3	10.9	£204,442
Existing resold property	-0.1	2.9	£147,204

Funding, buyer and building status for London

Transaction type	Monthly price change % since July 2017	Annual price change % since August 2016	Average price August 2017
Cash	-1.9	2.2	£504,874
Mortgage	-0.7	2.7	£477,807
First-time buyer	-1.1	2.2	£423,224
Former owner occupier	-0.8	3.0	£547,133
New build	0.0	8.9	£513,785
Existing resold property	-1.1	2.1	£482,012

Repossession

Repossession sales	June 2017
East Midlands	57
East of England	17
London	40
North East	92
North West	139
South East	66
South West	44
Yorkshire and the Humber	100
West Midlands	63
England	618
Wales	64

Notes to editors

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Tuesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The September 2017 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on 14 November 2017. See calendar of release dates.

2. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

3. Sales volume data is available by property status (new build/existing property) and funding status (cash/mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of new register information, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. This affects the sales volumes for new builds in more recent months; see Revisions to the UK HPI data for more information.

4. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

5. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.

6. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

7. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

8. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

9. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

10. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

11. Repossession data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

12. For England this is shown as volumes of repossessions recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales there is a headline figure for the number of repossessions recorded in Wales.

13. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossessions.

14. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

15. As a government department established in 1862, executive agency and trading fund responsible to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, HM Land Registry keeps and maintains the Land Register for England and Wales. The Land Register has been open to public inspection since 1990.

16. With the largest transactional database of its kind detailing more than 24 million titles, HM Land Registry underpins the economy by safeguarding ownership of many billions of pounds worth of property.

17. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

18. Follow us on Twitter @HMLandRegistry and find us on our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will join his 27 EU counterparts in Luxembourg today to sign off measures taking aim at income streams supporting North Korea’s illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The sanctions also include expanding the ban on EU investment to all sectors in North Korea, ending the EU export of oil to the country, and adding more names to the list of regime officials and companies that are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

The measures will also review the current list of banned luxury goods, and lower the amount of personal payments that can be sent to North Korea from €15,000 to €5,000.

EU foreign ministers will also place tighter restrictions on North Korean workers in the EU, with a view to stopping money being sent back that could be used by the regime to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programme.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

North Korea continues to pose an unacceptable threat to the international community, which is why the UK, working closely with our European allies, has secured a set of stringent new sanctions upon the regime.

As I have said before, the North Korean regime must bear full responsibility for the measures that the international community is enacting against it, including these sanctions.

Maximising diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea is the most effective way to pressure Pyongyang to halt its illegal and aggressive actions.

Background

To add further impact to the UK’s bilateral efforts, we have contributed to a European Union External Action (EEAS) proposal that it and EU member states should carry out parallel demarches in countries at risk of sanctions evasion by North Korean entities.

Additionally, the UK has instructed its diplomatic missions to lobby for urgent and comprehensive enforcement of UN sanctions against North Korea by those countries where the North Korean regime is most likely to try to evade sanctions.

There are no North Korean workers present in the UK.

Further information

• follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook
• follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

New guidance to make sure local authorities intervene earlier to help prevent families and individuals becoming homeless in the first place has been published today (16 October 2017).

The guidance, which is subject to an 8-week consultation, sets out how local councils should implement the Homelessness Reduction Act, due to come into effect in April 2018. The new Act requires councils to provide services to all at risk of becoming homeless, on top of those with a priority need such as families with children and those who are vulnerable.

Following further discussions with local authorities in England on the resources required to implement the Act, the government is providing an additional £11.7 million in new burdens funding to local authorities, taking the total amount to £72.7 million. This additional funding will be shared among local authorities over 2 years to meet the requirements of the Act.

The government will also be providing a share of £3 million to local authorities to support them in upgrading their data systems to allow them to assess how the Act is changing homeless prevention in their areas. This comes on top of the government’s investment of £550 million until 2020 for homelessness and rough sleeping.

Minister for Homelessness Marcus Jones said:

Tackling homelessness and rough sleeping are complex issues with no single solution, but this government is determined to help the most vulnerable in society. That’s why we’re implementing the most ambitious legislative reform in decades, the Homelessness Reduction Act.

Local authorities play a vital role in implementing the Act. Therefore the guidance and government funding will support them in making sure people will get the help they need earlier to prevent them becoming homeless in the first place.

The consultation asks for views on the guidance for local councils as they prepare to undertake their new duties under the Act, including:

• Making information and advice about homelessness available to all residents free of charge. This includes advice on preventing homelessness and securing accommodation, as well as rights under the Act, and how to access help.
• Tailoring advice to meet the particular needs of vulnerable groups, including victims of domestic abuse and young adults leaving care.
• Working collaboratively with people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, to agree a personalised housing plan based on their needs and circumstances. The plan will set out the ‘reasonable steps’ the local authority and the customer will take to prevent homelessness or help to secure alternative housing.
• Providing help to prevent and relieve homelessness for all eligible applicants, including single people who do not have ‘priority need’, and those who might be considered ‘intentionally homeless’.
• Securing and helping to secure suitable safe accommodation for people who are homeless, or helping them to stay in their current home wherever possible and appropriate.

Further information

The 8-week consultation closes on 11 December 2017.

The Homelessness Code of Guidance has been drafted with the assistance of a working group of local authorities and other stakeholders, and the final version will be published in the spring 2018.

The government is also continuing to fund free training through the National Housing Advisory Service, a partnership between Shelter and Citizens Advice, for local authority staff on the Homelessness Reduction Act up until April 2018.

Agreement has been reached between the UK Government and the devolved administrations on the principles that will underpin the process for bringing back powers from the EU to the UK.

The agreement came at a Joint Ministerial Committee (EN) in London today chaired by the First Secretary of State Damian Green MP with the Scottish and Welsh Governments. A representative from the Northern Ireland civil service also attended.

The First Secretary of State Damian Green said:

Following a set of constructive discussions with the Scottish and Welsh Governments, we have today agreed a set of principles that will underpin the process of repatriating EU powers.

On the day when the UK leaves the EU, all parts of the UK need to be ready. It is the government’s intention that the EU Withdrawal Bill will ensure a strong UK internal market, while safeguarding and adding to the decision-making powers of the devolved administrations.

These principles will hopefully now pave the way to agreeing a set of frameworks that will deliver vital certainty and continuity for people and businesses across the United Kingdom.

Note to editors

The communique from the meeting can be found here