East London boroughs rank highest in London house price index

Recently published Land Registry figures show, as of March 2023, Barking and Dagenham on the top, followed by Havering in second spot. Waltham Forest and Redbridge were ranked fourth and fifth. 

A house price index is a number that captures the changes in the value of residential properties in the UK.

It is calculated using sales data collected on residential housing transactions, whether in cash or with a mortgage.

High value of index implies the property value has changed more considerably over the years.

The index price for outer London boroughs have exceeded inner London regions since August 2015, but the gap has widened more starkly over the last two years.

Paul Ziff, the group manager of GBP Estates in Romford, told this paper that all the UK local authorities were “re-indexed to 100” in January 2015.

He said: “This means out of the 340+ local authorities in England and Wales, Havering house prices have risen the highest percentage in the whole of England and Wales, second only to Barking and Dagenham”. 

In terms of average property prices though, these boroughs have some of the lowest prices in London.

For Barking and Dagenham it stood at £346,946 in March 2023 compared to £335,997 in March 2022.

For Havering this number was reported to be £428,209 in March 2023 which is less than February’s figure of £434,409 but higher than £407,004 in March last year.

Waltham Forest saw average prices rise to £508,474 in March 2023 from £478,664 in March 2022.

Commenting on the price movement in Havering, Paul added: “This is to be expected as the prices being paid in 2022, when there was a shortage of properties in Havering for sale, meant buyers had to out bid each other to secure their new home.

“Now there is more balance in the Havering housing market, it’s only natural house prices will return to normality.”

He highlighted that just before Covid lockdowns in 2020, the average house prices in Havering were around £363,398.

The sales volume recorded by Land Registry showed that less transactions took place in January 2023 compared to previous months.

In Havering, the volume fell from 208 in December 2022 to 171 in January 2023 and in Waltham Forest the decline was from 325 to 231 respectively.

But Paul explained that the Land Registry can sometimes take up to 12 months to “total the number of transactions to their figures for a particular month”. 

He predicted a slight drop in number of people moving in 2023 compared to 2021-22, but claimed “it is better to judge the whole year and not the ups and downs on individual months” when it came to sales volumes.

In March 2023, research by market forecasters PropCast had placed two Havering postcodes, RM7 and RM5, among the top 10 “hottest” property selling markets in London.