The November survey of the London housing market reports a 0.4% increase in house prices, building on last month’s rise of 0.3%. House price inflation in the capital has now been positive for three months.
Two boroughs saw price falls, seven boroughs saw static prices, whilst 24 boroughs saw price rises. The highest price rises during October were reported in Waltham Forest (1.5%), Bromley (1.4%), Enfield (1.4%), Lambeth (1.2%) and Islington (1.1%). Price falls were seen in Bexley (-0.3%) and Brent (-0.1%).
The 10 boroughs with the highest house price rises have an average house price of £215,550 whereas the 10 boroughs with falling or stagnant prices have an average house price of £258,110.
With Christmas fast approaching, the London housing market has started to slow down – the number of new properties coming onto the market fell by 3.6% and the number of new buyers registered with estate agents also fell slightly (-0.2%). The market does, however, remain healthy, with evidence of a continuing healthy market coming from many indicators:
- Sales price as a percentage of asking price has risen for the seventh month in a row to 93.6% (93.2% in the October survey). Buyers are achieving smaller discounts from the original asking price (see graph 3 in notes to editors).
- Hometrack’s unique National Demand Index™ has shown a slight improvement for the fourth month in a row, redressing the balance between the number of houses available and the number of buyers looking.
- Average time taken to sell has improved again for the third month in a row – houses sell in approximately 4.8 weeks, compared to 5.7 weeks in August.
- An average of 13 viewings take place before a sale is achieved compared with more than 14 in previous months.
London Warms As Prices Rise Across The Capital, continued…
John Wriglesworth, Hometrack’s housing economist, comments:
“Over the past twelve months, London has performed worse than the country as a whole - prices have fallen on average by 1.5%. In spite of the top end of the market suffering badly in terms of price falls over the past year, the market is looking increasingly positive and price rises are now widespread across the capital.
“There has recently been a rebound of confidence, with interest rates and unemployment levels at near historic all time lows – prices have now increased in the capital for three months and should continue to rise for the rest of next year.
“Further improvement in the condition of the market bodes well for the new year – we confidently predict an average increase of 3% across the capital next year.”
