House prices in England and Wales rose for the first time in almost a year and a half in June, according to the Land Registry. The rise of 0.1% for June brings the average price of a property in England and Wales to £153,046.
The rise means the average rate of decline slowed to 14% from 15.9% in May but there are still falls in many individual regions: Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber both saw falls in June while prices in London rose by 2%.
The slowdown at the beginning of the year was revealed by the drop in transactions, which fell to 30,997 in January to April, from 59,948 in 2008. This was at its peak among the largest properties in England and Wales, presumably as less owners in this bracket would be forced to sell; there were 100 homes sold for more than £2m in April 2008, but a year later this had dropped to 36.
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David Smith, senior partner at Carter Jonas said this was not the beginning of a rosy road to recovery: ‘Mathematically speaking, prices rose in June, but in reality they are not so much rising as bottoming out,’ he commented.
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