Drawing on the house price indexes from the Land Registry, the Financial Times, Halifax and Nationwide, alongside Communities and Local Government, Rightmove.co.uk and Home.co.uk research - the index is seen to be a true picture of current market pricing.
Sitting at £198,422, the average house price in England and Wales is likely to tip over the £200,000 mark before the end of the year if current growth levels are to be believed.
However annual residential property price growth has fallen sharply over the past two months. Prices have risen 9.4 per cent since September 2006, compared to 10.6 per cent in July 2007.
In addition, property price inflation is likely to recede well below the 10 per cent mark over the next few months.
Annual average property prices in the top 20 per cent of the housing market grew by 14.7 per cent, while the bottom 20 per cent of the ladder only grew by 6.8 per cent, with the recent credit squeeze affecting riskier first-time buyers more than others.
Correspondingly, prices in Scotland and Northern Ireland continue to grow at a rapid speed. Prices in Northern Ireland rose 1.6 per cent in September 2007, up 48.8 per cent annually, while prices in Scotland rose 1.3 per cent in September, an annual rise of 17.7 per cent.
House price growth in the capital was 0.8 per cent and annual price growth has fallen to 15.9 per cent from a high of 17.2 per cent in July
The annual inflation of a detached house has fallen from 7.2 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2007 to 6.2 per cent at the end of the third quarter. Previously, only houses with four bedrooms or more were subjected to needing a Home Information Pack (HIP). This pushed many larger homes onto the market before the law was implemented suppressing price growth.
Other results thrown up by the research included:
- The price of a property owned by the average senior official or manager rose 7.5 per cent between September 2006 and 2007
- The average price of a property owned by an unskilled manual worker has risen 7.6 per cent since September 2006
- Annual residential property price inflation in Kensington and Chelsea slipped slightly to 28.3 per cent from 31.2 per cent in August
- Prices in Rhondda Cynon Taff and Blaenau Gwent fell in September, by 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively
