Properties in the East of England are up 7.2% over the year with the fastest growth while London has falling prices over the month.

Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows house prices in the East of England are higher by 7.2% or £19,251 year-on-year from £267,372 in 2016 to £286,623 to June 2017.

In contrast London has falling prices reducing -0.7% or £3,348 month-on-month with an average price for a home of £481,556, however, over the year there is some gain rising 2.9% over the year.

For first time buyers the fall in house prices is -0.6% with an average price for a home of £422,246 and this is good news as they would need a smaller deposit to purchase their first home.

Stronger grow for the counties

Regions outside of London have the highest growth with East of England leading with 7.2% rise in house prices over the year followed by East Midlands with 7.1%.

Over a month house prices in Northern Ireland are up 3.1% or £3,868 from £124,781 last year to £128,650 in 2017.

Wales has seen prices rise 2.9% month-on-month followed by Yorkshire and The Humber with 2.2%, the North East and North West both on 1.9%.

For these areas the rise represents a large proportion of annual grow as the following table from the ONS shows average prices and annual change for the UK to June 2017.

Area	Annual change	House prices
London	2.9%	£481,556
South East	4.9%	£320,168
East of England	7.2%	£286,623
South West	5.3%	£246,159
England	5.2%	£240,325
West Midlands	4.7%	£185,082
East Midlands	7.1%	£182,166
Yorks and Humber	4.9%	£157,762
North West	5.5%	£156,392
Wales	3.6%	£151,672
Scotland	2.9%	£144,253
North East	2.5%	£130,065
Northern Ireland	4.4%	£128,650

One advantage of rising house prices for existing homeowners is remortgage buyers can now release capital for home improvements.

In contrast home movers may find the gap between their current home and the next increases which means they need a larger mortgage.

Large swings in London home values

Some boroughs have seen strong demand over the year such as Kensington and Chelsea with the average price of £1.24 million last year rising 12.8% to £1.40 million in June 2017.

Others are considerably lower such as the City of London falling -20.3% or £184,389 to £723,576 possibly due to the Brexit vote and expectation of less demand if business moves from the capital to Europe.

Average prices and annual change in London for June 2017 from the ONS for the top ten boroughs are shown below.

Postal District	Average Prices	5-year change
Kensington And Chelsea	£1,405,521	12.8%
Hackney	£550,230	10.0%
Camden	£833,581	8.1%
Barking and Dagenham	£289,938	7.7%
Tower Hamlets	£473,439	7.7%
Havering	£361,578	6.5%
Bexley	£340,207	6.1%
Enfield	£403,742	5.1%
Haringey	£557,43	5.0%
Harrow	£471,793	5.0%

Other boroughs have seen a strong demand such as Hackney with prices rising 10.0% or £49,800 year-on-year with an average price of £550,230 or Camden up 8.1% or £62,676 with an average price of £833,581.

These rises allows the older equity release buyer in London to stay in their home while accessing the wealth in their property with a lifetime mortgage, using this for any purpose such as pay for care at home or help children start or expand a business.

With higher house prices in the capital buy-to-let landlords will look to outer London for affordable properties to help improve rental yields.

Other than the City of London, Greenwich has seen a fall down -3.1% over the year, Newham down -1.3%, Hammersmith and Fulham lower by -0.3% and Barnet falling -0.1%.

What are your next steps?

Talk to our London City Mortgage advisers if you are an older homeowner releasing equity from your property, we can recommend the lifetime mortgage to access wealth for holidays, home improvements or even buy a more expensive home.

At LCM our mortgage brokers can provide advice if you are a first time buyer, moving home, want to remortgage your existing home to a new cost effective mortgage deal or are a buy-to-let investor.

Learn more by using the equity release calculator, property value tracker chart and mortgage monthly cost calculator. Start with a free mortgage quote or call us and we can take your details.

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