According to the Land Registry, house prices nationally during May showed no movement (0.0 per cent). Annual inflation, however, fell to just 1.8 per cent (well below CPI), the ninth consecutive price decrease in England and Wales. And sales volumes during March were half of the number of March 2007, at 53,080.
London Boroughs
London showed quite significant variation. In the City of Westminster prices continued to climb and were 17.2 per cent higher than the same month in 2007.
Kensington & Chelsea (15.9 per cent), Camden (14.2 per cent) and Hackney (13.4 per cent) also made an impressive showing and led a select group of 11 boroughs with double digit growth.
Locally, the picture in Chiswick and surrounding area is relatively stable: Hounslow prices are 0.3 percent higher than May last year, Ealing figures are exactly the same (flat rate), and Hammersmith & Fulham was 0.9 per cent lower.
| LONDON BOROUGH |
INDEX |
AVERAGE PRICE |
MONTHLY CHANGE (%) |
ANNUAL CHANGE (%) |
| Hounslow |
190.1 | 298,641 | 0.3 | 6.8 |
| Ealing |
197.8 | 339,545 | 0.0 | 9.4 |
| Hammersmith & Fulham |
198.6 | 497,922 | -0.9 | 10.4 |
Across the country over the month, the East Midlands posted the largest rise (1.1 per cent), while the North East posted the biggest fall (-2.4 per cent).
The figures, which are based on completed property sales, come after sharp falls in house prices were reported by the UK's major lenders.
Broad picture
The figures painted a rosier picture for homeowners than lenders' data for the whole of the UK during the same month.
The Land Registry figures are based on completed sales across all lenders, unlike Halifax and Nationwide surveys which are based on an earlier stage in the buying process - when the price is agreed after a survey by their mortgage customers.
According to Halifax, UK house prices dropped by 2.4% in May, which pushed prices 3.8% lower than a year before.
Halifax, which is Britain's biggest mortgage lender, has since predicted that UK house prices would drop by 9% this year, a more severe fall than its previous forecast. The Nationwide building society reported a 2.5% fall in house prices during May. The surveys, and other research, all show a significant fall in the volume of house sales.
Transactions have collapsed in the wake of the international credit crunch, as banks and other lenders found it very difficult to raise mortgage funds on the financial markets.
Earlier this week HM Revenue and Customs said the number of UK property sales had fallen by 32% this year.
