House price statistics for small areas in England and Wales: year ending March 2023

House prices and number of transactions for property sales in England and Wales, on an annual basis, updated quarterly.

This is the latest release. View previous releases

3 January 2024

Former House Price Statistics for Small Areas datasets 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, and tables 2a to 2e from dataset 24, will continue to be updated twice a year, with data up to the year ending September 2023 being released alongside the Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2023 publication

Contact:
Email Aimee North

Release date:
20 September 2023

Next release:
To be announced

1. Main points

  • Median house price for residential properties was £290,000 in England and £200,000 in Wales in the 12 months ending March 2023.

  • The median price paid for residential properties in local authorities in England ranged from £116,000 (in Burnley) to £1.36 million (in Kensington and Chelsea) in the 12 months ending March 2023.

  • The median price paid for residential properties in local authorities in Wales ranged from £132,500 (in Blaenau Gwent) to £320,000 (in Monmouthshire) in the 12 months ending March 2023.

  • The number of residential property sales decreased by 26% in England and 26% in Wales between the 12 months ending March 2022 and the 12 months ending March 2023.

  • The number of detached property sales decreased by 34% in England and 34% in Wales between the 12 months ending March 2022 and the 12 months ending March 2023; this was the largest decrease of all property types.

  • This is the final house price statistics for small areas (HPSSA) publication in its current format and level of detail; for further information, see “Upcoming changes” in Section 4: Measuring the data.

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2. House price statistics for small areas data

There are 49 house price statistics for small areas (HPSSA) datasets in total, which show house prices by property type for various geographies in England and Wales, as well as the number of property transactions. You can find the most frequently downloaded datasets in this section.

Median house prices for administrative geographies: HPSSA dataset 9
Dataset | Released 20 September 2023
Median price paid for residential property in England and Wales, by property type and administrative geographies. Annual data.

Median house prices for administrative geographies (newly built dwellings): HPSSA dataset 10
Dataset | Released 20 September 2023
Median price paid for new residential property in England and Wales, by property type and administrative geographies. Annual data.

Median house prices for administrative geographies (existing dwellings): HPSSA dataset 11
Dataset | Released 20 September 2023
Median price paid for existing residential property in England and Wales, by property type and administrative geographies. Annual data.

Residential property sales for administrative geographies: HPSSA dataset 6
Dataset | Released 20 September 2023
Number of residential property sales in England and Wales, by property type and administrative geographies. Annual data.

Median house prices by Middle-layer Super Output Area: HPSSA dataset 2
Dataset | Released 20 September 2023
Median price paid for residential property in England and Wales, by property type and Middle-layer Super Output Area (MSOA). Annual data.

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3. Glossary

Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA)

A Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA) is a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales. As at 1 April 2022, using 2011 Census data, there are 34,753 LSOAs in England and Wales, each containing between 400 and 1,200 households. For more information, see the Census geography web page.

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4. Measuring the data

Data collection

The house price statistics for small areas (HPSSAs) use data from HM Land Registry. This is to provide statistics on the price paid and number of residential property transactions for properties sold in each area in England and Wales. Properties sold at a discount to the market level, such as properties sold under the Right to Buy scheme, are not included in these statistics.

HPSSAs are currently updated bi-annually or annually, with each release adding a new 12-month period to the data. However, the HPSSA release in its current format is being discontinued. For more information, see the “Upcoming changes” section.

The use of rolling annual data removes seasonal effects, which refers to peaks and troughs in property transactions at particular times of the year. It also reduces the impact of registration lag, where there is a delay in registration by HM Land Registry after the completed date.

The HPSSAs are compiled using the latest available version of the published Price Paid dataset from HM Land Registry. The property registration process can take time, particularly for new build properties. Therefore, the HPSSAs may not fully reflect all transactions that have taken place in the reference period and may be subject to revision.

The HPSSA revision period is 10 years. This means that estimates have been revised using the latest available Price Paid dataset for the period “year ending March 2013” and later periods. Users should use caution when drawing conclusions from these data. For further information, see our UK House Price Index (UK HPI) bulletins.

Differences to other house price statistics

There are two sets of official statistics for house prices. In addition to these HPSSAs, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also produces the UK House Price Index (UK HPI). The HPSSAs measure the number of property transactions and the price paid for properties sold in a given period, while the UK HPI measures the changing value of properties in the housing market.

HPSSA estimates reflect average house prices at particular points in time and do not account for changes in property mix between time periods. This means that each 12-month period estimate is not comparable with other 12-month period estimates. Users are advised not to infer trends in the house price market over time by comparing price estimates.

The UK HPI publishes average house price statistics which are comparable over time, down to local authority level.

You can find out more about the differences and uses of these outputs in our House price statistics for small areas Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Quality

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in the our House price statistics for small areas QMI.

Dataset publication frequency

The HPSSA collection provides annual statistical datasets which are currently updated annually or bi-annually, as shown in Table 1 of our previous HPSSA release.

Upcoming changes

The House price statistics for small areas in England and Wales (HPSSA) bulletin series has been discontinued. This release, published on 20 September 2023 for the period “year ending March 2023”, is the final HPSSA publication in its current format and level of detail.

We are aware that some HPSSA datasets are used for other core statistics that are required, so we will be engaging with stakeholders to minimise any impact. If you have any questions about this engagement, please contact hpi@ons.gov.uk.

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6. Cite this statistical bulletin

Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 20 September 2023, ONS website, statistical bulletin, House price statistics for small areas in England and Wales: year ending March 2023

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Contact details for this Statistical bulletin

Aimee North
hpi@ons.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 1633 456400