This month Land Registry
launches the first official, independent House Price Index (HPI).
Using Land Registry’s comprehensive property data, the new seasonally-adjusted
index will appear monthly, making average house prices available at national,
regional, county and London borough level.
As the HPI measures average price changes in repeat sales on the same property,
the price change on a flat in Mayfair is not compared with the change on a flat
in the Old Kent Road. This gives a like for like comparison, making it the most
accurate index currently available.
Ted Beardsall, Land Registry Deputy Chief Executive, said:
“The Land Register provides the most complete set of house price data
for England and Wales. We believe that our new House Price Index is more timely
and will become the authoritative and most accurate reflection of average house
price movements in the country.”
The Land Registry dataset is a record of all residential property transactions
made in England and Wales since April 2000. At present it contains details on
over seven million sales. Of these, 1.3 million are identifiable matched pairs,
providing the basis for the repeat-sales regression analysis used to compile
the index.