Member Article

North house prices up - but slower than rest of England, says ONS

New statistics show the North has had the lowest house price inflation over the last four years compared to other parts of England.

Even though both the North East and North West have seen a house price rise, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), both regions are lower than anywhere else in the country.

Once again, the market was in large driven by London, where house prices rose by a record 20.1% over the year.

Excluding London and the South East, prices rose by a much more modest 6.4% across the UK.

However, the North East’s figures show a jump of just 4.8%, while the North West climbed by just 3.9%.

In England, prices rose by 11%, in Wales prices were up by 6.5%, and in Scotland they rose by 3.6%.

According to the ONS index, the average price of a house across the UK is now £262,000.

Jonathan Samuels, the chief executive of Dragonfly Property Finance, told the BBC: “Annual house price growth of 20.1% is borderline insane, but there are signs that the capital started to cool slightly in June and July.

The housing charity Shelter said the only answer was more house-building.

“Once again these figures show that house prices are spinning out of control, putting a stable home even further out of reach for ordinary families,” said Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive.

“Instead scores of people are either stuck in their childhood bedrooms or forced to bring up children in unstable and expensive rented homes, however hard they work or save,” he said.

Regional House Prices in England Region (Annual inflation) London (20.1%) South East (9.6%) East (8.6%) West Midlands (7.2%) South West (7.1%) East Midlands (7.0%) Yorks and Humber (6.1%) North East (4.8%) North West (3.9%)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .