Land Registry launching new index ...

... and they're "very excited about it according" to Marion Shelly of the LR press office. Marion tells us that the new monthly index will contain data back to 2000; and will be different from the LR quarterly reports, in that the geographical breakdown will not be post-code specific:

the HPI measures average price changes in repeat sales on the same property, the price change on a flat in Mayfair is not compared with the change on a flat in the Old Kent Road. This gives a like for like comparison, making it the most accurate index currently available. Ted Beardsall, Land Registry Deputy Chief Executive, said:
“The Land Register provides the most complete set of house price data for England and Wales. We believe that our new House Price Index is more timely and will become the authoritative and most accurate reflection of average house price movements in the country.”
The Land Registry dataset is a record of all residential property transactions made in England and Wales since April 2000. At present it contains details on over seven million sales. Of these, 1.3 million are identifiable matched pairs, providing the basis for the repeat-sales regression analysis used to compile the index.

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