The latest monthly house price index from LCPAca Residential Index, highlights today that new-builds are far more expensive than existing homes that are sold.
The LCPAca Residential Index was launched by London Central Portfolio (LCP) in conjunction with independent analysts Acadata and is designed to provide comprehensive data that tracks residential property prices and volumes within England & Wales, Greater London and Prime Central London.
The index is based on the actual prices at which every property in England & Wales is transacted, including prices of properties bought with cash and all new builds, using factual Land Registry data, as opposed to mortgage-based prices, asking prices or prices based on samples. It adopts a forecasting model, developed over 20 years, enabling reporting to be two months more up to date than provided by the Land Registry itself.
The latest data from the index shows the average price of a new-build home across England and Wales is now £338,694 and that is some 15.8 per cent higher than buying an existing property.
This had obviously raised concerns that Help-to-Buy loans are continuing to prop up high house prices by lending buyers of newly-built property up to 20 per cent of its value interest-free for five years.
While new-builds across England and Wales remain more expensive than existing homes, the market has seen a 2 per cent decline in prices in just three months and fall in annual sales of 1 per cent across the country, the data also revealed.
The prime central London new-build market, which is mainly formed of glossy apartment-style living, has seen annual transactions slump nearly 14 per cent with many claiming a downturn in international buyers as the reason.
In Greater London, quarterly new build prices have fallen by 3.5 per cent and represent just 15.6 per cent of all sales, compared with a peak of almost 20 per cent.
The LCPAca report also showed that across England and Wales, average monthly prices fell 0.4 per cent and quarterly prices fell 0.5 per cent, the fourth consecutive fall.
As a result, annual price house price inflation is just 3.4 per cent - the lowest it has been since 2012, with the average price standing at £290,624.