Land Registry: House prices slide downwards

The latest round of house price reports show that property values continued to fall last month and year-on-year.

House prices dipped lower by 0.3% from March to April and 1% over the course of a year, according to the Land Registry House Price Index.

The fall mirrors what was reported by Nationwide earlier this month. The building society noted a 0.2% monthly fall and an annual downward shift of 0.9%. Meanwhile Halifax recorded a more severe 2.4% decrease in house prices between March and April and a 0.5% annual fall.

Halifax partly blamed the decrease on the end of the stamp duty holiday. The threshold for paying the property tax reverted to £125,000 from £250,000 at the end of March, prompting many buyers to try and beat the deadline by completing their deals earlier in the year. People who weren’t ready in time might have been put off buying altogether.

What does the fall mean?

If you’re a homeowner, your property is likely to be worth less than it was last year. The average house price in England and Wales now stands at £160,417, compared to £162,019 in April 2011.

If you’re not a homeowner, but you want to take your first step onto the property ladder, in theory this is good news as it suggests properties are getting cheaper.

However, it’s still hard to get a mortgage and it’s only made easier if you have a bigger deposit, which many people can’t afford. If you have a small deposit, there are schemes that can help - for more information read Santander launches NewBuy mortgage range.

London market a law unto itself

London property values continued to defy the national trend, with prices rising by an average 5.1%. Monthly house prices in the capital increased by the same figure.

On the flip side, Yorkshire & The Humber saw the biggest drop with a fall of 5.6%. There was some cheer in the report – during February the number of completed house sales in England and Wales increased by 9% to 43,331, compared to 39,670 in February last year. However, this could still be partly due to the end of the stamp duty holiday.

Here’s the full regional breakdown of house prices:

Source: Land Registry House price Index, May 2012

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside . . .

Despite London being the only area to typically see a significant rise in house prices, there are some exceptions. If you live near the sea, there’s a good chance that the value of your property has sky-rocketed.

The average house price in seaside towns has soared by 97% since 2002. Prices have more than doubled in over half of such towns surveyed in England and Wales for the Halifax Seaside Town Review. Seaham in County Durham saw average house prices rising by almost 183%, from £38,443 ten years ago to £108,742 today.

Scotland hasn’t fared too badly either. House prices have more than doubled in three seaside towns on Scotland’s north-east coast since 2004. They are: Madcuff, Fraserburgh and Cove Bay. A further 18 coastal towns have enjoyed price rises of at least 50%.

The cheapest and most expensive property sales

Land Registry data also revealed the cheapest and dearest property transactions from March. A property in Colne, Lancashire sold for just £8,000, while the most expensive property sold for a whopping £55 million and was, perhaps unsurprisingly, located in central London.

More on house prices:

Rightmove: house price optimism on the up

Why living near the tube will cost an extra £27k

Property asking prices hit record high – in the south