Official UK house price data published for first time

I am pretty sceptical about these statistics: as someone involved in property development and construction I simply do not believe that new home prices have gone up by 7.7% in a year, at a time of mortgage drought and the lowest level of new-build starts since the 1920s. It's more likely that builders are focusing on their higher-yielding bigger properties where buyers have substantial existing equity, rather than trying to build large numbers of small houses where buyers are scarce. This would push up the apparent average sale price for a "house", but then how does one define an average house?

I'd believe the figures more if I knew they were cross-referenced against the data available from EPCs, which all properties for sale and rent are now obliged to have, and the figures were based on £s per square metre. Yes, they could still create the headline-grabbing sale for an "average house" in different areas of the country, but a £ per square metre would allow much greater accuracy than the current 1-bed, 2-bed, 3-bed approach.

The reported figures do not seem to be consistent.

It says "The average house price in the UK for February was £224,473 ... up from £211,960 a year earlier."

By my calculations this is an increase of 5.9%, not the 0.3% reported.

The figures do not seem to be consistent.
"The average house price in the UK for February was £224,473 ... up from £211,960 a year earlier."

This appears to be a 5.9% increase, not the 0.3% quoted.

I agree with Mike Barnes' figures, but feel that the whole process, as it stands, is crass. You can never compare like for like when dealing with individual properties as each house price will reflect the familiar TV comment, location, location, location. There is no doubt that average property prices will differ from region to region as regional stocks will differ. Most estate agents have little idea of the true value of properties and any property, however fantastic is only worth what a buyer pays. So, I say, cut the cow poo and just give us the figure of the total sales value of houses in a region, divided by the number of sales and let us be mature enough to draw our own conclusions. Once we have drawn those conclusions they will still not tell us anything from month to month but have to be compared over a much longer time span to have any real value.

Too many, so called experts, especially in the banking world have drawn too many conclusions from short range figures and that is why they are unable to assess what is coming at us over the horizon. Currently too many volatile factors are contributing to flux in the property markets, but it is still a great time for the buyer to invest having taken care to consider as many factors as s/he can before taking the plunge. Lets face it. There has been little building for nearly twenty years now and the population is still rising. People need to live somewhere so the letting market is likely to thrive for many years to come. Always remember that this kind of investment is for the medium to long term so it is a good move for young people with drive and determination to get involved in. But keep out the rogue landlords, they smear our busness and we don't want them.