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Summary
The Land Registry is the government body responsible for recording land and property ownership across England and Wales. It publishes a monthly House Price Index using the Repeat Sales technique to sift through latest transactions and calculate the average property price both nationally and locally. It also provides information on volumes of sales.
Data
The Land Registry overhauled its data in 2005, now called the "price paid" dataset this involves around 100,000 transactions per month and covers 100% of all housing completions. It also contains data from April 1, 2000 onward and provides information on the address, postcode, date of completion and price paid. However it does not contain information about the characteristic of the house, such as number of bedrooms and parking spaces. There is a growing feeling among housing market researchers that the Land Registry should update its figures to include such information (Leishman, Watkins and Fraser, 2002).
Method
The information on each completion is updated as soon as it is received from the relevant local officer, however this can take often be around two months after the property transaction. It is estimated that in any month only a quarter of actual transactions taking place in that month are recorded. Advances in e-conveyancing are expected to speed this process up.
Disadvantages
- The figures can be out of date as it can take months not only for sales to be completed but for the data to be processed by the Land Registry
- The figures can be distorted by 'cash back' type transactions and renovations
- The figures do not include repossessions or sales at auctions, as the Land Registry consider these as commercial transactions, and therefore do not reflect the true market value of homes
Advantages
- The Land Registry has access to all house price transactions and volume of sales, giving it a far wider source of property sales information than many other indices
Verdict
A clear advantage of the Land Registry's House Price Index is that the data is factual and therefore reliable. It is even possible to find out average transaction prices for very specific property types; for example, it is possible to find out the average transaction price and number of sales for a semi-detached house in postcode sector 'B13 9' between April and June 2004. It is, however, the last index to be published for a certain time period, and therefore the last to detect any changes.
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