Land Registry Division of LandSearch Provides Information During Continuing Housing Boom

Despite many warnings at the beginning of the year that house prices would fall during the year, house prices continue to rise. The evidence given for a fall was the increase in unemployment, lower wage increases coupled with increasing inflation and the likelihood of interest rates rising.

(PRWEB) July 6, 2006

The Department for Communities and Local Government reported that the value of terraced and semi-detached houses increased by more than the national average during April. Terrace properties increased in value by 2% while the average semi went up by 1.1%.

At the beginning of the year the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) forecast that house prices would increase by 2 per cent during 2006. They have now revised their expectations to 7 per cent higher during 2006.

The Land Registry’s latest residential property price report covering the period Jan to March 2006 shows the average house price in England and Wales was £192,745 an annual increase of 5.05%, this is half the rate for the similar period for 2005 which was 10.27%.

The volume of sales has increased dramatically by 37.49% from 159,116 in 2005 to 218,770 for the same period in 2006. The number of properties over £1m increased to 1032 compared to 655 for the same period in 2005.

Although, according to the Bank of England, mortgage approvals fell to a 7 month low in April, the figures from the CML show that May was 18% higher than in April, 30 per cent higher than May 2005 and the second highest month ever.

Michael Coogan, the director-general of the CML said: “Lending has hit record levels in six of the last eight months supported by the strength of the London Market” Although Mr Coogan said his organisation expects demand to moderate later in the year, it still looked set to be robust for the immediate future.

The evidence from the Land Registry, Council of Mortgage Lenders and government is of increased sales coupled with prices that, although rising less quickly than last year, show that the housing market is still alive and well.

LandSearch are the largest online providers of land registry information for the whole of the UK and Ireland. We can provide information about land and property for private individuals and organisations.

We can supply Property Registers and Title Plans, names of owner information, searches on land without a postal address, home information packs, rights of way and rights of access searches, boundary dispute searches, history and manorial searches, local government and environmental searches, bankruptcy, judgement and company searches.

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