UK House Price Index
This June, an all new UK House Price Index will be launched by the Office for National Statistics, replacing the existing indices currently published by the ONS itself, and the Land Registry for England and Wales.
The new Index will merge these two HPIs, and incorporate additional data from Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Based on completion prices, it will give a UK-wide picture, and be updated monthly.
By bringing all these datasets together, and by employing the best internationally agreed methodology, the Government believes the new UK HPI will give the most accurate and detailed picture of the UK housing market yet.
What this means for your portfolio
At the moment, we update all our properties based on a RICS Chartered Surveyors valuation every 3 months. This will remain the case.
In the months between these quarterly independent external valuations, we adjust every property’s value in line with the existing Land Registry House Price Index. Updated property valuations are published on the 5th of the month, or the first working day thereafter.
The ONS has informed us that the publication of its new UK House Price Index will be delayed until 14 June, which means we won’t be able to revalue our properties on Monday 6 June as usual.
However, the quarterly RICS desktop valuations are unaffected by these changes. Throughout June, RICS accredited surveyors will be carrying out revaluations of all our properties. This data will be used to update all valuations on 5 July, synchronising our whole property portfolio into a new, consistent quarter-end valuation cycle.
From 5 July, this simple new rule applies. Once each and every property has reached fully funded status and legal completion as a New Listing, they will immediately be listed on the Resale market at their RICS value, rather than, as now, at their purchase price.
Please note that once the new UK House Price Index has been released, we will also need time to analyse its data and methodology. While we’re doing this, we won’t be providing monthly revaluations between the quarterly updates.