House Prices Soar across London As UK Average House Price Rises Across the Board

HONG KONG - Feb. 26, 2014 - PRLog -- The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has released data that suggests that the average UK house price has hit the £250,000 mark. This has caused house prices in the UK to hit new highs.

The ONS went on record this week indicating that data it had gathered during the latter half of 2013 has established that for the first time in the nation’s history the UK average house price has surpassed the £250,000 threshold.

Officials at the ONS have concluded that a steep rise in the average UK house price can be attributed to, amongst other things, a 1%-3% rise across the country in stamp duty rates, which contribute significantly to the calculation of UK house prices.

This means that the last month of 2013 saw the average sum rise by a rate of 5.5% across the board. Specifically, excluding London and the South East, key markets which proved impervious to the ravages of the economic crisis, house prices have risen by 3.1%.

Therefore excluding these areas of the nation, the average UK house price stood, according to the ONS, at £195,000. Furthermore the region with the lowest rate of house price growth was Scotland; this figure stood at 0.5% for the latter half of the year.

London itself has seen greater gains than the rest of the country. According to official figures the rate of house price growth for the same period in the nation’s capital measured 12.3% for the corresponding period.

Considering the breadth of the London market, average house prices across the nation’s premier city vary, although most, if not all, stand above the £250,000 average for the entire UK. Haart, which is part of the largest estate agency group in the UK, has since gone on record as stating that its average London house price currently stands at £448,800.

Iain Brand, Joint Managing Director of Direct Property Group (http://www.directpropertygroup.com.hk/), a Hong Kong based property brokerage that facilitates property acquisition in regions across the world, including London, has commented on what these latest figures mean for the London housing market.

Brand commented that “these figures indicate what those of us in the London property business already know; London house prices are higher than ever right now and that for those looking to capitalise on high values for high returns, this is the perfect time to enter the London property market.”

The numbers provide a clear consensus among industry professionals. The UK housing market, particularly its London contingent, has entered sustained recovery and is set to continue to rise throughout the course of 2014.