The company Land Securities have confirmed that property prices in the capital London when compared to the rest of the country are significantly different – prompting a huge divide emerging in the UK housing market.
Despite the main emphasis of the study being commercial property prices, there are strong beliefs that this divide could extend to residential properties, with the demand in the capital being substantially different to that seen in the rest of the country.
The latest house prices were released at the end of May – covering the period of time from January to March of this year. They are clearly beginning to punctuate the divide in the UK. According to data compiled by Land Registry of England and Wales, the average house price across these two countries amounted to £224,064 – with £344,989 being the typical asking price for a detached house in particular.
However, average prices in the Greater London area are significantly different. £406,608 is the average price here – and a detached house could cost as much as £828,438 on average.
The differences are substantial – particularly if you are buying a property. It can be interesting also to consider the change in prices that has been seen over the past year. An example of this can be how house prices across England and Wales have depreciated in the past year by 2.8%. However, this could be brought into the steep contrast of London’s appreciation in house prices by 16.6% over the past year.
Howard Archer is an economist for IHS Global Insight – a company who have become prominent in analysing the market based on past data. He said: “We believe that house prices are likely to be erratic over the coming months and will probably be only flat over the rest of 2010.”
As Britain emerges cautiously emerges from the recession, experts and consumers are going to watching the property market eagerly in the coming months.
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