The Land Registry recently released their November data and it was optimistic with the strongest average house price increase in a year to year comparison.  The house price index revealed that the average price of a home in England and Wales had risen to £161,490.  This is a 0.3% increase over October’s data and 0.9% over November 2011’s data.

London, which has shown strong demand for property, had an annual increase of 5.9%.  This put the average house price in the capital at £362,592.  The October to November comparison revealed a 0.5% increase for London properties.  Wales had the largest drop of any region for November with the average house price falling to 1.6% and a value of £115,202.  In a year to year comparison the house price average in Wales had a decline of 0.9%.

The number of property transactions for house sales in England and Wales decreased in September by 21% to 50,517 from the 63,552 recorded in September 2011.  In luxury house sales for more than £1 million, the number decreased by 19% to 613 from the 753 recorded in September 2011.

Expectations for the final month of 2012 are that the numbers will remain stable.  The same is expected for the 2013 year data with house prices to remain stable except for London which is due to return to pre-crisis level house prices by 2014 according to some experts.

Housing market experts also expect that there will be more first time buyers in 2013 returning to the market and that homeowners will increase the demand for remortgages.  The reason is the easing expected in the lending market for mortgages and remortgages due to the Funding for Lending Scheme put into place by the government to keep loans readily available and at low interest rates from lenders.