How we calculate House Price Watch

A list of data we monitor and analyse so you don’t have to.

Katherine Binns Director, Research

Why did we create House Price Watch?

Every month mortgage lenders, property professionals or government publish data on what is happening in the housing market. Often their views contradict each other – due to the way they calculate their estimates.

Who reports on what?

• Land Registry UK House Price Index Report – The UK House Price Index (UK HPI) is calculated by the Office for National Statistics and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland. Data for the UK House Price Index is provided by Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services Northern Ireland and the Valuation Office Agency. Find out more about the UK House Price Index
• Halifax House Price Index – UK wide. The largest mortgage lender (part of the Lloyds Banking Group), this index assesses data from 20% of the UK mortgage market and is based on the banks valuation of customers’ homes. Published monthly.
• Nationwide House Price Index – UK wide. Based on nationwide mortgages sold each month. Prices come from their valuation at the point when the mortgage is approved. Published monthly.
• Rightmove – England and Wales. The property listings website compiles average prices from homes added to their site over the last month. However, remember the listing price is generally higher than the price achieved. They claim that 90% of all homes on the market are on their site. Rightmove reports both national and regional changes to house prices. Published monthly.
• HomeTrack/ Zoopla – Modified their methodology in October 2014.  Now based upon recorded sales prices from the Land Registry ‘Price Paid’ data set and equivalent data from the Registers of Scotland. The price paid data is supplemented by mortgage valuation data.  The index tracks house prices in the top 20 UK cities. Published monthly (we report their city price data & Zoopla commentary)
• Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – UK wide. Each month 250 experienced members are asked how they feel prices are doing in their area. Despite being based on opinion, tends to produce results that are proven to be historically reliable. Only one consulted by the Bank of England prior to their monthly rate-setting meeting. We include RICS commentary in our monthly report.

 How is our House Price Watch Index calculated?

• The index of indices, the House Price Watch Index is an average of the monthly and annual house price indices from Land Registry UK House Price Index, Nationwide, Halifax.
• We use Land Registry UK House Price Index regional data to track average monthly price changes in each region.
• While we report Rightmove’s monthly house price changes, Rightmove data is not included in either our national or regional average as the basis for its index is asking prices — a different and more volatile measure than other indices.
• We include HMRC residential property transactions and RICS market survey results and Hometrack/ Zoopla in our commentary each month.