House prices dip but still increasing year-on-year
The UK housing market continues to face choppy waters. House prices are slowing, fewer viewings are taking place, and mortgage approvals are at their lowest level outside of the pandemic since 2009.
Official house price data for December has failed to alleviate concerns about the market slowdown, with prices now falling month-on-month across the UK – although they are still rising on an annual basis.
It follows a disastrous minibudget under the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss who, alongside her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, sent mortgage interest rates spiralling after the prospect of massive tax cuts spooked financial markets.
But what do the official figures say about property prices in West Sussex? Are they rising, or is our area one of the dozens across the UK where prices started to tumble last month?
We have all the answers for you here, alongside an interactive chart that will let you explore what the statistics are telling us about the local property market. Are house prices rising or falling in West Sussex? The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry published the latest official house price data on Wednesday,
February 15, known as the UK House Price Index.
This showed average house prices in West Sussex stood at £406,368 in December – 1.9 per cent lower than in November, when prices were at £409,792, but 9.6 per cent higher than in December last year, when the average was £370,836.
The UK House Price Index is based on property sales rather than asking prices or mortgage data and is, therefore, considered the most reliable barometer of UK house sale activity.
Across the UK, house prices have risen by 9.8 per cent in the last year, from £268,115 to £294,329. While prices may be much higher than last year, the rate of inflation has slowed – prices were up 10.6 per cent in the year to November, and 12 per cent in the year to October. The ONS said some of the recent annual inflation rates have been volatile due to fluctuations in prices during 2021. For instance, there was a sharp fall in average prices in October 2021 following the end of the Stamp Duty holiday, which made yearon-year growth in October 2022 particularly high.
Alongside an average cost, the House Price Index data also offers a more detailed view of the housing market, with average prices published for detached, semi-detached, and terraced homes, flats, and prices faced by first-time buyers.
Our sister title NationalWorld has created an interactive chart that shows how house prices have fared for different types of property in West Sussex and other council areas over the last five years.
The biggest year-on-year growth came in West Lancashire, where prices were up by 23.8 per cent, followed by Blaenau Gwent in Wales, at 23.3 per cent.
Prices were down in just seven councils, all but one of which – Aberdeen, where prices were down 4.9 per cent year-on-year – were in London.
On a monthly basis however, more than 170 local authority areas saw house prices fall.
Across the UK as a whole, semi-detached properties saw the strongest growth, with prices up by 11.2 per cent yearon-year. Prices for flats, meanwhile, were up by only 6.4 per cent. In West Sussex, property prices for various types of home were: detached homes – average price of £708,081, up 9.3 per cent since last December; semidetached homes – average price of £453,527, up 10.6 per cent; terraced homes – average price of £359,713, up 10.4 per cent and flats – average price of £219,902, up 7.8 per cent.
You can look up more information about property prices in West Sussex, its districts and boroughs and elsewhere over time in the charts on the NationalWorld.com website. This includes an interactive graph showing house prices over the last 20 years in every local area.