The report, which covered the period April to June 2006, showed an annual increase of 5.43 per cent in house prices. It also showed that sales in England and Wales were up by 23.76 per cent from 216,890 in 2005 to 268, 430 for the same period in 2006.
Sales in Greater London also increased by 26.69 per cent and the average property price increased by 8.29 per cent from £293,349 in 2005 to £317,679 for the same period in 2006.
The report gave a breakdown of the average sale prices of old and new properties by property type. The figures were taken into account by the Bank of England along with other housing market and economic indicators.
The Land Registry’s report also found that 1,246 properties costing over £1 million were sold compared to 718 for the same period in 2005. In Greater London, 795 properties over £1 million were sold compared to 454 in 2005.
Accord Mortgage’s commercial director, Mark Underhill, said: “My inclination is that this will not be reflected in every area of the country. The danger with statistics like these is they tend to suggest every area of the UK is booming at the same rate. There is no doubt the market is more active than it was, but there are areas of the country where this is not reflected.”
Paul White, IFA at Belgravia Insurance Consultants, said: “The government is not building enough new housing. With more immigrants coming to Britain needing housing, landlords with houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) shedding their portfolios and people wanting to buy before the Energy Efficiency report comes into place, I can see why the Land Registry has reported such increases.”
