House prices often spark lively debates at the dinner table, in bars or even on your commute. Everyone can search websites and see homes for sale at a variety of prices in any given area, but how do you find information on the average price they have sold for? That’s where the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) comes in.
With the UK HPI you can start with the average price, not the asking price. The data is supplied using the actual price paid for individual properties across the whole of the United Kingdom. The UK HPI has no bias. It uses housing market data to provide a transparent view of the housing market. The National Statistics badge indicates that the index has been independently assessed and meets the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value as defined in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Achieving National Statistic status
It is a major achievement to be awarded National Statistic status from the Office for Statistics Regulation.
The UK HPI is unique as a cross-government production by HM Land Registry, Land and Property Services Northern Ireland, the Office for National Statistics and Registers of Scotland, working together to create a dataset that contains information on registered residential property transactions that includes sales volumes, average prices by property type and cash/mortgage sales.
Who are our users?
As you all know, the national and local press regularly use UK HPI data when writing articles on property prices and matters concerning the property market. Housing market expert Henry Pryor said:
I find what you do with the UK HPI to be fantastic.
The Bank of England, the Treasury and other government departments use the data to help form policy decisions.
Where we began
The UK HPI was launched in June 2016 as an experimental statistic. User testing has been fundamental in creating and improving this release. In September 2016, users of the index were invited to complete a questionnaire to help evaluate various aspects of the report and associated data to improve the customer use.
Further user events were held in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as direct calls and emails from stakeholders, which provided regular feedback and all fed into a final development phase implemented in January 2018.
The future
While achieving this statistical landmark is amazing, it doesn’t stop us from getting better. We have a programme of research and development aimed at improving and maintaining the UK HPI which forms our development plan. This ensures we continue to meet user needs, make use of new and innovative methods and are compliant with international standards.
If you would like to share your feedback on the UK HPI, you can register to join our LinkedIn UK HPI group or contact us for more information.