Gulf between cheapest and most expensive properties revealed

More than 83,500 property and land sales were registered with HM Land Registry in December, with some staggering differences between the cheapest and most expensive properties sold.

According to the Land Registry data, the most expensive residential property sold was in the City of Westminster for £39,500,000. In contrast, the cheapest residential property sold was in Seaham, Country Durham, for £20,000.

Of the 20,296 sales that actually took place in December, 453 were of residential properties in England and Wales costing £1m and over, whilst 275 were for residential properties in Greater London for £1m and over. Only two were of residential properties in Greater Manchester for more than £1m, and only one was in Wales for more than £1m.

The amount of time between the sale of a property and the registration of this information with HM Land Registry varies, but typically ranges between two weeks and two months.

There was a 9.1% fall in sales of new build properties, with 9,699 of the 83,715 sales received for registration in December newly built.

Annual UK house price growth picks up

According to Nationwide’s latest Monthly House Price Index, annual house price growth edged up to 1.9% in January, with prices up 0.5% month on month. The average price of a property in the UK is now £215,897, the building society said. Annual house price growth was 1.4% in December, following 12 successive months in which it had been below 1%.

There’s also been a small increase in the home ownership rate. According to the latest English Housing Survey compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, this rate increased to 63.8% in 2019, up from 63.5% in 2018.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist said: “Looking ahead, economic developments will remain the key driver of housing market trends and house prices. Much will continue to depend on how quickly uncertainty about the UK’s future trading relationships lifts, as well as the outlook for global growth. Overall, we expect the economy to continue to expand at a modest pace in 2020, with house prices remaining broadly flat over the next 12 months.”