Press release

UK House Price Index for March 2023

The UK HPI shows house price changes for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

From:
HM Land Registry
Published
24 May 2023
Last updated
24 May 2023 — See all updates

Image credit: Andreas Sialis/Shutterstock.com

The March data shows:

  • on average, house prices have fallen by 1.2% since February 2023
  • there has been an annual price rise of 4.1% which makes the average property in the UK valued at £285,009

England

In England, the March data shows that, on average, house prices have fallen 1.5% since February 2023.The annual price rise of 4.1% takes the average property value to £304,193.

The regional data for England indicates that:

  • No region saw a monthly price rise. The South East experienced the smallest monthly fall with a movement of -0.4%
  • the West Midlands saw the most significant monthly price fall, with a movement of –4.0%
  • the South West experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 5.4%
  • London saw the lowest annual price growth, with an increase of 1.5%

Price change by region for England

Region Average price March 2023 Annual change % since March 2022 Monthly change % since February 2023
East Midlands £246,092 4.9 -1.2
East of England £351,898 3.9 -2.0
London £523,325 1.5 -1.7
North East £156,912 4.0 -1.6
North West £211,759 5.2 -1.3
South East £394,543 4.6 -0.4
South West £326,035 5.4 -0.6
West Midlands £245,132 3.4 -4.0
Yorkshire and the Humber £203,635 4.1 -2.1

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in January 2023 was in the South West.

The highest number of repossession sales in January 2023 was in the South East.

Repossession sales January 2023
East Midlands 4
East of England 6
London 12
North East 12
North West 13
South East 14
South West 1
West Midlands 7
Yorkshire and the Humber 10
England 79

Average price by property type for England

Property type March 2023 March 2022 Difference %
Detached £483,994 £459,987 5.2
Semi-detached £292,617 £279,591 4.7
Terraced £244,965 £237,899 3.0
Flat/maisonette £249,779 £241,496 3.4
All £304,193 £292,146 4.1

Funding and buyer status for England

Transaction type Average price March 2023 Annual price change % since March 2022 Monthly price change % since February 2023
Cash £284,384 3.9 -1.5
Mortgage £314,028 4.2 -1.5
First-time buyer £251,841 3.9 -1.6
Former owner occupier £349,656 4.3 -1.4

Building status for England

Building status Average price January 2023 Annual price change % since January 2022 Monthly price change % since December 2022
New build £418,519 12.3 -1.2
Existing resold property £302,283 6.3 -0.8

London

London shows, on average, house prices have fallen 1.7% since February 2023. An annual price rise of 1.5% takes the average property value to £523,325.

Average price by property type for London

Property type March 2023 March 2022 Difference %
Detached £1,077,639 £1,059,572 1.7
Semi-detached £684,589 £666,861 2.7
Terraced £565,247 £561,293 0.7
Flat/maisonette £435,808 £429,475 1.5
All £523,325 £515,591 1.5

Funding and buyer status for London

Transaction type Average price March 2023 Annual price change % since March 2022 Monthly price change % since February 2023
Cash £538,412 0.3 -1.6
Mortgage £517,818 1.8 -1.7
First-time buyer £451,730 1.6 -1.5
Former owner occupier £600,811 1.2 -1.8

Building status for London

Building status Average price January 2023 Annual price change % since January 2022 Monthly price change % since December 2022
New build £582,075 8.9 -1.5
Existing resold property £533,705 3.3 0.0

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have fallen by 0.6% since February 2023. An annual price rise of 4.8% takes the average property value to £214,174.

There was 1 repossession sale for Wales in January 2023.

Average price by property type for Wales

Property type March 2023 March 2022 Difference %
Detached £331,364 £314,626 5.3
Semi-detached £209,424 £197,942 5.8
Terraced £164,845 £158,656 3.9
Flat/maisonette £135,001 £130,183 3.7
All £214,174 £204,321 4.8

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Transaction type Average price March 2023 Annual price change % since March 2022 Monthly price change % since February 2023
Cash £206,353 4.2 -0.4
Mortgage £218,650 5.1 -0.7
First-time buyer £183,813 4.7 -0.6
Former owner occupier £250,140 5.0 -0.5

Building status for Wales

Building status Average price January 2023 Annual price change % since January 2022 Monthly price change % since December 2022
New build £315,748 11 -3.5
Existing resold property £211,201 5.4 -2.5

UK house prices

The annual percentage change for average UK house prices was 4.1% in the 12 months to March 2023, compared with 5.8% in the 12 months to February 2023.

The average UK house price was £285,000 in March 2023, which is £11,000 higher than 12 months ago, but £8,000 below the recent peak in November 2022. Average house prices increased over the 12 months to £304,000 (4.1%) in England, to £214,000 in Wales (4.8%), to £185,000 in Scotland (3.0%) and to £172,000 in Northern Ireland (5.0%).

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, average UK house prices decreased by 1.2% between February 2023 and March 2023, while average UK house prices increased by 0.5% during the same period 12 months ago.

The UK Property Transactions Statistics showed that in March 2023, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the estimated number of transactions of residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 89,560. This is 18.9% lower than 12 months ago (March 2022). Between February 2023 and March 2023, UK transactions increased by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Annual house price inflation was highest in the South West where prices increased by 5.4% in the 12 months to March 2023. London was the English region with the lowest annual growth, where prices increased by 1.5% in the 12 months to March 2023.

See the economic statement.

The UK HPI is based on completed housing transactions. Typically, a house purchase can take 6 to 8 weeks to reach completion. As with other indicators in the housing market, which typically fluctuate from month to month, it is important not to put too much weight on one month’s set of house price data.

Access the full UK HPI

Background

  1. We publish the UK House Price Index (HPI) on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. We will publish the April 2023 UK HPI at 9:30am on Wednesday 21 June 2023. See calendar of release dates.

  2. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.

  3. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

  4. Sales volume data is available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions that require us to create a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.

  5. Revision tables are available for England and Wales within the downloadable data in CSV format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

  6. HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency supply data for the UK HPI.

  7. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency calculate the UK HPI. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, including HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

  8. We take the UK Property Transaction statistics from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series. HMRC presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. We make adjustments for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in aparticular month.

  9. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.

  10. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

  11. The UK HPI reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

  12. HM Land Registry provides information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process for properties that are sold for full market value.

  13. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

  14. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

  15. For England, we show repossession sales volume recorded by government office region. For Wales, we provide repossession sales volume for the number of repossession sales.

  16. Repossession sales data is available from April 2016 in CSV format. Find out more information about repossession sales.

  17. We publish CSV files of the raw and cleansed aggregated data every month for England, Scotland and Wales. We publish Northern Ireland data on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

  18. HM Land Registry’s purpose is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

  19. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. Its vision is “A world-leading property market as part of a thriving economy and a sustainable future.”

  20. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership valued at £8 trillion, enabling over £1 trillion worth of personal and commercial lending to be secured against property across England and Wales. The Land Register contains more than 26 million titles showing evidence of ownership for more than 88% of the land mass of England and Wales

  21. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

  22. Follow us on Twitter, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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Published 24 May 2023
Last updated 24 May 2023 + show all updates

  1. First published.