London sluggish but England and Wales price average nears £300,000

The latest data from Your Move reveals London as still being the area of England and Wales with the lowest house price growth - 0.7 per cent on an annual basis.

This is despite prices in the capital falling by an average of 1.4 per cent in July, leaving the average price in the capital at £591,459. 

In July - the most recent data analysed by Your Move - 21 of the 33 London boroughs saw price falls, however 20 boroughs have increased over the year.

Much of the fall in London’s price in the last month is down to three of the most expensive boroughs: Kensington and Chelsea, the most expensive, where they fell 3.4 per cent to £1,823,659; City of Westminster, with prices down 6.8 per cent on the month (and 9.8 per cent on the year, the biggest annual fall) to £1,347,536; and finally Wandsworth with prices at £731,782 after a 3.8 per cent fall.

Outside London, all regions continued to record annual growth in July, but the East of England is particularly strong. With prices up 5.5 per cent annually, and a 0.3 per cent increase over the month, the region set a new peak average price of £325,616.

Prices in the East of England are still some way off the levels in London but they’re closing the gap with the South East, where the average price is £369,095 and growth in the last year has been less than half the rate in the East, at 2.5 per cent.

Since price growth began to slow in February, the gap between average prices in the two regions has fallen from £54,786 to £43,479.

Elsewhere, the divide between high and low priced areas continues to be reinforced, however. 

With the exception of London and the South East, higher priced areas – the East, South West (up 3.9 per cent annually), East Midlands (up 3.5 per cent) and North West (up 3.9 per cent) – are all seeing stronger annual growth than the cheaper regions of the North East (up 1.2 per cent),Yorks & Humber (up 1.0 per cent) and Wales (up 1.8 per cent)

Overall, 86 unitary authority areas in England and Wales – 80 per cent of the 108 total – have recorded price rises over the year.

When it comes to transactions, Wales is leading the way: eight of the 10 top spots in terms of the areas with the highest increase in property sales between the periods of May to July 2016 and May to July 2017 are all located in Wales.