NINE-MONTH PRIME PRICE RALLY ENDS

Added: (Wed Feb 08 2012)

Pressbox (Press Release) - • Prime property asking prices decline after nine months of successive growth
• But overall asking prices for prime property have risen 4% since January 2011, boosting prices by almost £20,000
• London property continues to race ahead of UK and is becoming a property market increasingly de-coupled from the rest of the UK.

Asking prices for prime properties – the top quarter of the market by value – have fallen by 0.5% over the past month, ending a nine month rally in which asking prices for prime properties hit new heights, according to the latest prime house price index from property website PrimeLocation.com.
View the full index here: http://www.primelocation.com/house-price-index/
Despite prices dipping in December, the average asking price for a prime property in the UK is now 4% higher (£19,097) than last January, at £473,373. In comparison, asking prices for the UK property market as a whole have increased by just £2,471 (1%) over the same period, with the average asking price now £218,468.
Prime property prices for houses for sale in London rose 0.9% to an average of £1,232,278, though some areas saw substantially higher increases than this. Haringey and Camden had the fastest appreciating prime properties, with monthly price increases of 6.1% and 2.4% respectively.
Nigel Lewis, property analyst at PrimeLocation.com says: “The London prime market continues to defy the rest of the country, with prices over 10% higher than they were this time last year. Prime asking prices are increasing at roughly double the speed of the average property in the capital, largely due to continued interest from overseas investors, which are helping push prices higher and higher.”
But overall, falling prices have been recorded in the Prime market across much of the nation with London and Wales the only regions posting significant gains. Asking prices in Wales rose for the 11th consecutive month in December, with gains of 0.4% taking the average Welsh prime property value to £366,638.
“Prime properties have performed well over the last year; outperforming the general market over the same period and boosting the value of the nation’s most expensive homes by almost £20,000,” says Nigel Lewis.
“As we’ve seen in previous years, the property market slows down in winter, with fewer transactions and lower prices as a result. This provides a great opportunity for people looking to buy, but the window is short, as the winter slowdown usually only lasts a month or two.”
UK regions table:

Region Average Prime price Monthly price change

South East England £572,000 -0.8%
South West England £482,508 -1.1%
Wales £366,638 0.4%
West Midlands £391,413 -1.0%
East of England £450,456 -0.7%
East Midlands £366,147 -0.4%
North East England £323,172 -0.5%
North West England £362,902 0.0%
Yorkshire and the Humber £349,425 -1.6%
Scotland £392,143 -1.6%
London £1,232,278 0.9%
UK £473,373 -0.5%


London boroughs table:

Area Asking Prime price Monthly price change
Barnet £1,385,011 0.0%
Camden £1,896,601 2.4%
City of Westminster £2,444,683 -0.1%
Ealing £874,977 1.6%
Hackney £688,502 -0.1%
Hammersmith And Fulham £1,655,214 -0.5%
Haringey £1,086,223 6.1%
Islington £972,485 0.1%
Kensington And Chelsea £2,738,503 1.6%
Kingston Upon Thames £669,699 0.8%
Lambeth £679,853 -0.2%
Merton £1,028,594 -0.8%
Richmond Upon Thames £979,989 -0.1%
Southwark £849,343 2.0%
Tower Hamlets £637,802 1.5%
Wandsworth £1,128,966 -0.2%
London £1,232,278 0.9%

-ENDS-

About the Prime Index
The monthly PrimeLocation.com Prime Index offers a unique, independent and robust view of the UK’s prime property marketplace, including prices and stock levels. For the first time, the index provides authoritative data for all regions of the country.
It segments the upper end of the market as follows:
• Prime – incorporating the top 25% of all UK property by value
• Prime Platinum – incorporating the top 10% of all UK property by value
The percentile approach enables the two prime tiers to track the overall market prices, stock and remain relative to local market forces.
About PrimeLocation.com
PrimeLocation.com is the UK's principal portal for leading estate agency firms, representing 12,900 branches including major estate agents such as Savills, Knight Frank and Hamptons International. It lists just under a million properties to rent or buy in the UK and overseas and has over 5m visits a month*. PrimeLocation.com is part of the Digital Property Group, a division of A&N Media.
*Source: Cognesia, Monthly average from May 2011 to November 2011.
For further press information please contact Citigate:
Tom Wilson, Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tom.wilson@citigatedr.co.uk 0207 282 2842