The quarterly report from the Land Registry found that there has been an increase of 8.46 per cent in house prices from the final quarter of 2000 to the final four months of 2001. This was much lower than the 15.5 per cent increase reported by Halifax, but the report does not cover the UK as a whole.
The survey looks at a wider range of factors than the mortgage lenders, and includes sales made with borrowed money and cash. It found that the volume of sales increased by 20.54 per cent from 236,985 in 2000 to 285,653 for the same period in 2001.
The largest increase in property prices was in East Anglia, where the average house price increased by 18.16 per cent from £94,931 to £112,172. But, the average property price in Greater London rose by just 3.9 per cent from £195,868 in 2000 to £203,499, confirming the slowdown in the rate of prices as first-time buyers find themselves priced out of the market in the capital.
