New figures from the Land Registry suggest that house price growth is finally starting to slow.
House prices fell 0.5% in March across England and Wales to £189,901. Annual house price inflation now stands at 6.7%.
The March data shows that the number of property transactions has increased over the last year. From October 2014 to January 2015 there was an average of 73,744 sales per month. In the same months a year later, the figure was 74,374.
London showed a monthly increase of 0.2%, bringing the average price of a property in the capital to £534,785.
At 13.9%, the annual change for London is considerably higher than most other regions. The North East saw the only annual price fall with a movement of -0.7%.
Andy Sommerville, director of Search Acumen, said: “A slight drop in prices across the country for the first time in a year will provide some relief to first time buyers looking to get on the property ladder, but sadly, London property continues to see huge increases in prices. While this spike could be attributed to the surge in buy to let investment prior to the April 1st stamp duty hike, London unequivocally remains attractive to ambitious young people above other cities where house prices are more reasonable.
“Land Registry’s figures reveal a pressing need for more new homes in London. Housing will be the defining issue in next week’s London mayoral election and although both Labour and Conservative mayoral candidates have pledged to deliver new homes for the capital, the pressure will be on the new mayor to take the crisis by the horns.
“Today’s figures come at a time when planning approvals within the capital have been falling, and the spillover of unaffordability has spread to areas around its commuter belt. Building on Brownfield land cannot be the only solution, and could be exhausted within six years. None of us want to go there, but ‘not in our backyard’ will simply not do anymore – we need to give serious thought to building homes on the Greenbelt around the capital.”
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