London housing market booms driving average prices upwards
LONDON proved yet again to be the driving force behind a continued house price recovery in July, Land Registry data showed yesterday.
With prices up 2.7 per cent in July, the London market was behind the overall 0.8 per cent increase seen across England and Wales. Downward pressure came from slipping prices in the north west, south west, Yorkshire and especially the north east, where prices fell 2.1 per cent.
This left the average London house price at £367,785, the report showed, compared to an average of just £162,900 for England and Wales as a whole. The region with the cheapest houses was the north east, where the average dwelling costs only £98,557.
Analysts were pleased with the slight uptick, but wary about future prospects. “The Land Registry data is less gloomy than some of the other housing indices and yet the housing market in parts of the country really is suffering,” said Mark Harris, boss of broker SPF Private Clients.
“The jury is still out on whether the Bank of England’s emergency funding will…[result] in cheaper mortgages,” he added.