Are house prices falling in my London borough? Check the local property market with our interactive tool

The housing market in the UK has experienced a turbulent time and those lucky people who can afford to get on the property ladder in London have seen significant uncertainty.

Across the UK the market is slowing, with fewer viewings taking place. Setting aside the height of the pandemic, mortgage approvals are at their lowest level since 2009.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry data has not put paid to concerns about the market slowdown, with prices falling month on month across the UK - although they are still rising on an annual basis.

Mortgages were sent spiralling last year after the financial markets were spooked by Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget.

Use out interactive chart below to explore the local property market in your area:

Are house prices rising or falling in London?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry published the latest official house price data on Wednesday (February 15), known as the UK House Price Index.

Market movements have varied dramatically across London boroughs.

In Westminster, across property types, prices have seen a substantial drop (-13.9%), year on year, and prices have also fallen in Kensington and Chelsea (-9.9%), Islington (-5.9%), Camden (-3.9%) and Richmond Upon Thames (-0.9%).

The biggest rises have been seen in Tower Hamlets and the City of London (both 20.8%).

The UK House Price Index is based on property sales rather than asking prices or mortgage data, and is therefore considered the most reliable barometer of UK house sale activity.

Across the UK, house prices have risen by 9.8% in the last year, from £268,115 to £294,329. While prices may be much higher than last year, the rate of inflation has slowed – prices were up 10.6% in the year to November, and 12% in the year to October. The ONS said some of the recent annual inflation rates have been volatile due to fluctuations in prices during 2021. For instance, there was a sharp fall in average prices in October 2021 following the end of the Stamp Duty holiday, which made year-on-year growth in October 2022 particularly high.

Alongside an average cost, the House Price Index data offers a more detailed view of the housing market, with average prices published for detached, semi-detached, and terraced homes, flats, and prices faced by first-time buyers.

Our sister title NationalWorld has created an interactive chart that shows how house prices have fared for different types of property council areas over the last five years:

The national picture

The biggest year-on-year growth came in West Lancashire where prices were up by 23.8%, followed by Blaenau Gwent in Wales, on 23.3%. Prices were down in just seven councils.

On a monthly basis, more than 170 local authority areas saw house prices fall.

Across the UK as a whole, semi-detached properties saw the strongest growth, with prices up by 11.2% year-on-year. Prices for flats meanwhile were up by only 6.4%.

You can look up more information about property prices in your area and elsewhere over time in the charts on the NationalWorld.com website. This includes an interactive graph showing house prices over the last 20 years in every local area.

What will happen to the housing market in 2023?

The Bank of England is warning that the supply of homes for sale is increasing faster than demand, and that higher borrowing costs and concerns about affordability are “weighing significantly” on first-time buyers.

As a result, the majority of offers put in by potential buyers are now below the asking price, and the number of house viewings taking place has fallen sharply, according to insight from the Bank’s contacts in the housing market.

HM Land Registry says the housing market will “remain on a downward trajectory over the coming months”, with monthly data from the Bank of England showing fewer mortgages were approved in December – the fourth consecutive monthly decrease. If the Covid pandemic period is excluded, the number of new mortgages approved are at their lowest level since January 2000, it said.