Housing market statistics cover data on housing markets but also rents and lettings. There are four main areas of statistics: house price index; other house price information; rents data, and social lettings (CORE).
Publications
Data on council house sales.
Mix-adjusted house prices, a chain linked index and measures of annual inflation.
Routine update of housing statistics web tables to March 2009, plus summary of key trends
Presents the results from the Survey of English Housing.
The quarterly releases present statistics on possession actions issued in county courts by mortgage lenders and social and private landlords in England and Wales. Note that the figures represent court actions for possession and not actual homes repossessed, as not all possession orders are enforced.
Statistics on housing compiled by Department for Social Development Housing Division and Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
Information on new house sales and prices, actions for mortgage possessions, and new housing starts.
Presents statistics on the number of right to buy sales of local authority dwellings completed in Wales.
Overview
House price index
Communities and Local Government publish a monthly house price index that includes monthly mix-adjusted house prices and annual changes in house prices for the UK and regions. It also includes data on first-time buyers.
Other house price information
Communities and Local Government publish data on house prices down to local authority level on their website in their live tables.
Statistics on repossessions are published by the Ministry of Justice.
Renting data are available for the social sector (properties let by local authorities (LAs) or registered social landlords (RSLs)) and the private sector (properties let by private individuals or companies).
Statistics on rents, lettings and tenancies are included in the Communities and Local Government live tables. These tables use various sources of data including the Survey of English Housing (SEH), the Housing Subsidy Claims Forms, the Housing Corporation’s Regulatory Statistical Return and the Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix.
Quarterly private rent index information is published on a quarterly basis based on data from the Survey of English Housing data.
Social lettings data are available from CORE (the COntinuous REcording of lettings and sales), which records information on the characteristics of both RSLs and local authority new social housing tenants and the homes they rent and buy. Data are collected and published by St Andrews University on behalf of Communities and Local Government and the Housing Corporation.
Technical Data
The Communities and Local Government house price index uses data from the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS). The RMS is a survey run by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) that collects data from its members on all their regulated mortgages in the UK.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) then supplies Communities and Local Government with about 60 per cent of the data (as some lenders opt out of submitting the data). This is then used for the monthly Communities and Local Government house price index and other analyses. Further information on the methodology of how the house price index is produced is available on the Communities and Local Government website.
The other main source for house price information is the Land Registry. The Land Registry record data on all residential transactions at market value in England and Wales. They then submit this information for use in live tables down to local authority level but also for use in ONS Neighbourhood Statistics down to output area level.
Other data published in the Communities and Local Government live tables includes housing market data collected and published by other government departments, such as repossession court data published by the Ministry of Justice, and other bodies, for example, numbers of actual repossessions published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Rents, lettings and tenancy data comes from a variety of sources:
Lettings information for local authorities is reported in their annual Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) returns. These returns are completed by all local authorities in England and cover a range of topics including sections on lettings, nominations and mobility schemes, waiting lists and choice-based lettings and dwelling stock.
Lettings and rents data for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) are collected by the Housing Corporation’s Regulatory and Statistical Returns (RSR). This is an annual data collection whereby every RSL takes part in a census to gather information about, for example:
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the type and amount of stock they own and manage
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numbers of lettings
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rents and service charges
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number and reasons for vacancies
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acquisitions
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sales
Full details and latest analysis from RSR can be found on the RSR Website.
Rents data for local authorities is generated from the Housing Revenue Accounts Subsidy system. Local authorities complete a set of subsidy claims forms annually. This includes a section on rents, whereby local authorities (with their own social housing stock) provide information on their social housing rents in their area.
Information on new social housing lettings made during a year is collected on CORE (Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales). This measures the ‘flows’ of households entering or transferring in social housing, rather than providing information on every household in social housing.
CORE is currently collected by the Centre for Housing Research at St.Andrews University on behalf of Communities and Local Government and the Housing Corporation. It records information on the characteristics of both registered social landlords (RSLs) and local authority new social housing tenants and the homes they rent and buy. Full details and analysis from CORE can be found at the CORE website.
The Private Rent Index uses data from the Survey of English Housing (SEH). Full methodology can be found on the Communities and Local Government website.
Glossary
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Assured and assured shorthold tenancies (private rents)
These tenancy types now represent about 75 per cent of all private rented tenancies. The other 25 per cent of tenancy types are generally at lower (non-market) rent levels and include regulated tenancies, employer-provided subsidised accommodation, those with a resident landlord and people living rent–free (for example, in a property owned by a relative). According to the Survey of English Housing (SEH), in 2006/07 the average rent paid for an assured or assured shorthold tenancy was £114 per week, whilst other tenancy categories had rent levels averaging between £60 and £70 per week.
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First time buyer/former owner occupier
In the statistics presented, a former owner-occupier household is a household that was in owner-occupation immediately prior to making a house purchase. First-time buyers are households that move into owner-occupation without having to sell a property. Therefore, numbers will include some buyers who have previously owned a property before, but are not in owner-occupation at the time of purchase. Estimates from the Survey of English Housing (SEH) suggest that around 20 per cent of stated first-time buyers may fall into this category. The other 80 per cent will be ‘genuine’ first-time buyers (that is, those who have never owned a property before).
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Income
The income of borrowers is the total recorded income on which the mortgage is based, and it may understate the borrowers’ true income or may include more than one income.
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Mix-adjusted house prices
The house price index is mix-adjusted to allow for the fact that different houses are sold in different periods. House prices are modelled using a combination of factors that produce a model containing a large number of ‘cells’ (variable combinations such as first-time buyer, old dwelling, and detached property in London). Once the monthly price estimates for all cells have been determined by the model, they are combined with their appropriate weights to produce that month’s mix-adjusted average prices for all the required output categories. Weights are calculated annually based on the relative numbers of transactions during the previous three years. The index is an annual chain-linked Laspeyres-type index, like the Retail Prices Index (RPI).
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New dwellings
New dwellings are defined as those that never previously existed. So conversions of buildings (for example, out houses, barns) into living accommodation are not counted as ‘new’ dwellings.
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Repossessions
A property is repossessed if a lender takes it back from a borrower. This can happen when the borrower fails to meet the terms of the contract they signed with the lender when taking out the loan on that property.
Contact Details
For statistical enquiries about this topic, please contact:
Tim Roast
Email: housing.statistics@communities.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7944 3303
Housing Markets and Planning Analysis division Communities and Local Government Floor 2/A4 Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU
